High failure rates at third level have been blamed on an "academic snobbery" by a leading school principal.
In a controversial address, Clive Byrne of the second-level principals group also opposed plans by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to bring forward Leaving Cert papers in Irish and English to May.
He backed radical reform of the entire Leaving Cert, in marked contrast to the cautious approach favoured by Ms Hanafin.
Mr Byrne said the high first-year failure rates at third level were unacceptable when standards at second level were rising.
Failure rates of more than 20 per cent are common in many courses, even in those which require very high CAO points.
There must, he declared, be no dumping down of standards to fill places in third level as the points race eased. An academic snobbery which demanded high failure rates in the belief that this was the only way to maintain standards, was at work, he suggested.
Mr Byrne was giving his presidential address to the opening session of the annual conference of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals.
On exam reform, he said the association believed there was some scope for extending the Leaving Cert timetable in June to meet the demands of emerging subjects. The decision to schedule paper 1 in Irish and English in May as a means of alleviating stress "is possibly not the best way forward".
He said the extra 20 minutes provided in Leaving Cert exams in English and other subjects should be abolished. "The association feels that exams of three hours and 20 minutes must not be permitted at second level."
Mr Byrne, the principal of St Mary's, Rathmines, Dublin, criticised changes in the main teaching qualification, which were making it difficult for schools to recruit the teachers they needed.
He said the CAO-style application process for the Higher Diploma (whereby applicants get credits for the level of their degree and the number of hours logged in the classroom) was not meeting the needs of the system effectively.
