The head of the group representing second-level principals yesterday delivered a strong critique of the current exam-driven education system.
In a robust address, Patricia McDonagh also criticised the role of the media in "hyping up" the Leaving Cert exam.
"Out of all this hype comes our grind culture that so dominates the post-primary educational system. Parents and students become so obsessed with results that they buy into the grind culture."
Ms McDonagh, president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), said: "We have to stop seeing second-level education as a means to an end, a commodity to be bought through grinds . . . This idea of education being a race for points has permeated our whole system of education at second level."
Instead of being carefully and slowly helped through the process of maturation, students are rushed through "a plethora of subjects in an overcrowded curriculum, in overcrowded classrooms over long days. We do all this as if there is a finishing line for our students in August of sixth year . . . and then we turn around two weeks later to start on the next group." While we are busy racing through school life, real life is happening outside our doors, she said.
"In this real world students are binge-drinking, taking drugs, partaking in underage sexual activities, racing cars and damaging themselves through anorexia, self-harm or the finite act of suicide. Schools are a mirror of society and as the pace of life has speeded up so too has the pace in schools. But we should be a caring community and there are more and more casualties falling by the wayside in this relentless pursuit for points."
Ms McDonagh accused the media of playing on parental anxiety over the Leaving Cert. "I don't think there is any other country in the world that gives as much media hype to its exam system and outcomes as we do. The media have much to answer for in this regard."
School principals, she said, understood that every parent wanted to do the best they could for their child, especially with regard to education. The media had much to answer for: they played on this concern and on parental anxiety, she said. The constant examination of education in the media fed what the writer Alain De Botton called "status anxiety" - peer pressure for adults. On school league tables, she said, "There is a tension in Irish education between wishing to be inclusive and yet appear top of the league tables."
In an address at the opening day of the NAPD annual conference in Kilkenny, she welcomed plans by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to ease pressure on students by reforming the exam timetable. Reflecting concerns among principals about their heavy workload, she also called for the development of a stronger middle management at second level.
On male underperformance in exams, she said boys in working-class areas needed specific help. "Many boys who are turned off school at a young age never re-find the motivation to become successful learners."
