Sir, – Examinations are meant to discriminate between students who know their subjects and those who do not. A good examination paper discriminates in such a nuanced way that it is possible to report relative amounts of knowledge. Writing a good exam paper is not as easy as it sounds and examples abound of questions which teachers consider unfair.
In order to limit some of the variability, it is safer to assume that, for example, a sudden spike in high grades in maths is due to a failure in the exam rather than a sudden increase in maths ability in the student cohort of over 60,000.
The statistical curve fitting described by your columnist Una Mullally as a "dirty secret" is neither dirty nor a secret ("Students fear failure, but the Department of Education has openly embraced it", Opinion & Analysis, May 11th).
It is an admission that it is not possible to create a perfectly nuanced exam question every time and that it is probably safer to assume that this year’s large student cohort are broadly no better or worse than last years. The Covid-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to our students, their teachers and to administrators. Surely they deserve our support in making the best of a bad lot. – Yours, etc,
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JOHN MOLLOY,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The decision to postpone Leaving Cert 2020 has been taken with little or no consideration of the effects on those students who had listened to the Government’s earlier advice and had studied and planned to sit the exams in late July. Any postponement of the exams means that the results will not have any bearing on college placements, and so “cancellation” is the more appropriate word.
I am not referring to the Plan B decision to move towards a predictive grading mechanism, which is an administrative minefield, but will probably suit a large number of students, depending on their personal, educational or medical circumstances. I just want to know what happened to Plan A! Why can the students who want to sit the Leaving Cert on July 29th not be facilitated?
Currently in early May, the general population has access to large stores such as Tesco, Lidl, Dunnes, etc. There are at least 100 people working and shopping in my local Tesco at any one time, and people have adapted to procedures and habits to allow this without posing a public health risk.
By July 29th, the roadmap projects that we will have resumed weddings, normal operation of hospitals and access to schools for teachers.
However, for reasons not credibly explained, we cannot devise a safe method to accommodate Leaving Cert students (probably in much reduced numbers) in otherwise empty schools? For instance in my son’s school, there are 60 rooms for at most 180 potential exam-takers.
To add to the confusion, regular school attendance will apparently start in September, a few weeks after the cancelled Leaving Cert!
This situation is unfair to students who have worked hard to have their destiny in their own hands, and not subject to a statistical treatment of a third party’s best guess on their leaving Cert results. It is also important to note that these students have nothing to do for months – with no prospect of summer jobs, sports or holidays in the near future.
I plead with the Government to follow the great example of our healthcare system, food providers, and other frontline workers and show the organisation and leadership to allow these students to finish in 2020 what they have worked towards for six years.
Or have these students’ plans been sacrificed for political expediency during new government formation talks? – Yours, etc,
DECLAN WHITE,
Portlaoise, Co Laois.
A chara, – As a teacher in a Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) setting, I have my class rankings ready to send to our State exams body. I don’t see the need to actually give my students a mark as this body will have pre-determined the grades I can allocate. It is wonderful that “statistical methods” and “algorithms” can tell my students in advance what they are. Who can argue with that? Maybe if my humble school begs for an extra H1 they will bestow it on my students. A child in my disadvantaged school, having already overcome obstacles not experienced by others, will now have to fight harder to get the grade they deserve in the exams.
While accepting the need for calculated grades in this exceptional situation, I reject totally the use of school profiling (effectively league tables) as the final arbiter of my students’ grades. Platitudes about “not disadvantaging any student” are meaningless as long as school profiling remains. Exceptional measures are understandable. But discrimination heaped on inequality as a deliberate part of our exam process? Never. – Is mise,
PADDY FLOOD,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – In this cancelled Leaving Cert fiasco, just one question: how will those students who attend, or were about to attend, expensive grind-school courses to boost their results be assessed? Bravo to the populists, who, from the comfort of the Opposition, clamoured for cancelling the exam without having to provide viable solutions! – Yours, etc,
MARTIN KRASA,
Sunday’s Well,
Cork.
Sir, – Perhaps the Government could look at holding exams in the restaurants that are to reopen at the end of June? God knows they’ll need the business. – Yours, etc,
DAVID LOWRY,
Stoneybatter,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – All “home-schooled” Leaving Cert students to receive 600 points from their parent-teacher? – Yours, etc,
THOMAS COTTER,
Crosshaven,
Co Cork.