Youth groups plea over exam reform
The country’s leading youth organisation has called on Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to take on board the views of teenagers before reforming the Leaving Certificate.
The minister will meet 100 pupils in Dublin today who sat this year’s tests to pick their brains over changes to the exam timetable.
But Youth Work Ireland claimed Ms Hanafin is refusing to discuss other aspects of the Leaving Cert with schoolchildren.
“One of the key things politicians must do is listen to young people and to their concerns,” spokesman Michael McLoughlin said.
“The minister has made a good start in that regard but by hugely limiting what’s on the table she is sending out all the wrong signals.
“This should be a much broader and more fundamental examination of the system involving a more widespread consultation of a whole number of young people not just a small amount who have just completed the exam.”
Ms Hanafin has argued against continuous assessment insisting it would remove from the rigours of the tests.
But Mr McLoughlin said: “This is far from the case and most business leaders want these kind of changes. They also lead to a more balanced and rounded citizen.
“At the end of the day if we want to listen to young people about these issues we should do so in an open an accepting way, this cannot be achieved by restricting what is and isn’t on the table.”
