My daughter is in fifth year and wants to switch from higher to ordinary level for Irish. I think she’s more than capable of higher level. However, she is convinced that moving down will give her more time to maximise her points in other subjects at higher level, some of which she is doing in a grind school. What is your advice?
This is not an uncommon view among students heading into the Leaving Cert cycle: they target subjects with a view to maximising their points. It is, however, utterly wrong for a whole series of reasons.
Irish is regarded as one of the most difficult subjects. However, it is one of the “easiest”, based on the proportion of students who secure high grades.
The oral exam – which takes place over Easter in sixth year – is worth 40 per cent of the overall marks at both higher and ordinary. The five poems and texts are the same at both levels, as is the CD listening test worth a further 10 per cent, even though the questions on the content may be different.
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Grind schools are booming. Would they offer any advantage in a properly resourced education system?
For a student who has the ability to take Irish at higher level, it makes no sense to drop down to ordinary level at the beginning of the two-year cycle simply to target CAO points.
Doing this and then taking on additional higher level subjects in the evening time or weekend in a grind school runs the risk of destabilising a student’s performance over the seven Leaving Cert subjects they are studying at school.
Of course there may be circumstances where an individual student needs a level of one-to-one support in a specific subject at some stage over the two-year Leaving Cert cycle. But the belief that, alongside day-to-day schooling, parents need to invest in a parallel programme of ongoing grinds is to my mind driven by a fear – which is not founded in any reality – that their child will somehow lose out because so many other parents are funding additional grinds.
There are multiple pathways now for students to progress their career aspirations following the completion of second level.
Directly to college through the CAO, on to their preferred CAO course following a one-year post Leaving Cert (PLC) programme, through the new tertiary degree route outside the CAO system, through the apprenticeship/traineeship route through Solas, or through degree courses taught through English in European universities.
My advice to students starting into the Leaving Cert cycle today is to choose the three subjects you most enjoy, beyond the core subjects of Irish, English, maths, and in most cases a continental language. Study them to the highest level you are capable of. Participate fully in your school’s cultural and sporting life. Ignore all the hype around grinds.
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