You may turn your education system upside down now.
An actually-radical government-commissioned report out today by Dr Áine Hyland (above) begins a process that should end the ‘Points Race’ forever. Under the proposals, reported in the Irish Times, the CAO admissions policy (a brutal numerical slug out every August) will be replaced by a system where students are matched and given preferential entry to the courses that best reflect their academic strengths.
The report [by Dr Hyland, a founder of the Dalkey School project] says the points race is damaging second level education. A less restrictive college admissions system would help deliver a more holistic education at second level. It could also end a practice whereby CAO points are determined by the popularity of the course rather than its academic standard.
The report admits some Leaving Cert subjects – notably higher-level maths – are more difficult than others. It says students opt for subjects that are seen as “easier” to amass the points they need for college instead of taking those that best match their skills set.
The report also helps to unravel a lingering mystery, namely why our ‘elders’ have made such a comprehensive balls of every single thing in every area of Irish public life since their ‘elders’ did the same thing before them and so on and so forth? Turns out – wait for it – the people who get on in Ireland are people who can retain knowledge but are all too often not very knowledgeable.
The new report is highly critical of the distorting or “backwash” effect of the Leaving Cert on third-level colleges. It acknowledges how many students – weaned on rote learning in the Leaving Cert – come to college without a strong capacity for critical thinking or independent learning.
Who would have thunk it?