THE Leaving Certificate has been condemned by CORI, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, as "irrelevant to some students and relevant only to parts of the lives of all students".
CORI says the narrow focus of the Leaving Cert damages society and contributes to the alienation of disadvantaged young people. It called yesterday for a "unified" senior cycle programme which would give equal status - and equal marks - to social and personal development and vocational skills as to academic learning.
In a strongly worded attack on the second level education system, CORI argues that the Leaving Cert has been "hijacked" by third level colleges.
"It currently suits these institutions to have an exam system which facilitates the ordering of students on the basis of once off written exams. Thus we have the annual `points race' and the unhealthy individualism and competition which accompany it," according to Sister Teresa McCormack, director of CORI's education office.
Although it welcomes the fall in early school leaving from 21 per cent of the cohort in 1994 to 8 per cent last year, CORI says this leaves "no room for complacency". "As the number of young people who leave school early declines, the extent of their marginalisation may increase and solution to the problem may become more intractable," Sister McCormack says.
The problem of early school leaving and the wider problem of educational disadvantage need to be tackled by special measures aimed at individual schools, such as the Minister for Education's new breaking the cycle schemes.
However, the damaging effects of the Leaving Cert are not confined to disadvantaged students, she argues. "We challenge the view that the Leaving Cert is serving the system well except in relation to a minority of `non academic' students. The whole of society suffers from the narrow focus of the existing programme and from the excessive emphasis on preparing students to compete in public exams.
The narrow academic focus of the curriculum means many human abilities and qualities are not developed or recognised, according to CORI. These include qualities which all young people need to develop for work and life.
CORI, which represents the religious orders which run almost 500 secondary schools, says the system undervalues many of the talents of disadvantaged students creates a "motivation gap" between them and other students and contributes to the disaffection and alienation they experience.
It welcomes initiatives such as the Leaving Cert Applied programme, but says their potential will not be realised until they achieve the same status as the traditional Leaving Cert, through positive discrimination in funding and certification and by addressing aspects of the culture of schools, such as teacher student relationships and the absence of support for dealing with disruptive behaviour.
A unified programme would, according to CORI, bring about a better match between the needs of young people and the wider society, and what the education system can offer.
