Sir, – Once again we appear to be going through the annual hand wringing exercise about the Leaving Cert (Letters, November 17th). This time however it may be preferable to consider the lessons of the pandemic, and avoid a clamour for solutions that increase rather than decrease the level of unfairness we subject second-level students to.
While continuous assessments and teacher judgement may have a role, the predicted grade exercise of the past two years demonstrated all too clearly how human biases can influence such exercises.
Boys in particular were the victims of gender bias in that exercise that saw additional artificial uplift for girls in many subjects. While some have argued this is reflective of a more studious approach by some groups this misses a key point: the Leaving Cert is at its heart a demonstration of the knowledge acquired by the student and their ability to express it. Approaches that do not reflect differences in learning styles and that penalise individuality in students cannot be a fair reflection of that.
Perhaps the most enlightened part of the letter was the call to disentangle the whole process from the CAO admissions process. We should consider whether a leaving cert that reflects “fitting a type” truly reflects what we want as a society for young people.
– Yours, etc,
ALBERT WINSTON
Glasnevin, Dublin 11.