Contrary to popular perception, teenagers have a good understanding of domestic and international politics, according to findings by the chief examiner of the Department of Education.
The subject is the only specific schools examination which tests, at Junior Cert. level, a pupil's knowledge of current, topical, social and political issues, through a written test and a report on an action project or course assessment exercise.
The Department's examiner carried out the first evaluation of the new Junior Certificate subject - Civic, Social and Political Education (CPSE), which was introduced to schools last year and is now mandatory. In general comments, the examiner said "the level of maturity and critical analysis" displayed by the candidates was "particularly striking".
"The general level of understanding and knowledge of national and international issues displayed by candidates in their answers belies the comment that is often made, that political is sues are too complicated and beyond the general comprehension of 13- to 15-year-old candidates," the chief examiner said in the report.
However, elsewhere the examiner says: "It was interesting to note the amount of candidates who felt that the political system did not involve them and felt that politicians were not addressing issues concerning young people."
While some of the 16,663 candidates made errors in the written paper, for example wrongly naming Mr Gerry Adams and the Rev Ian Paisley as Nobel Peace Prize-winners, the questions were generally answered correctly.
Answers to question 2 in section 2 of the paper indicated poor knowledge about Europe. "Very few candidates knew the name of an Irish European Commissioner or the name of any of the European treaties," it says.
While the knowledge of Europe was patchy, the candidates possessed an in-depth knowledge of the election process which many of their elders might envy.
"Candidates had an excellent understanding of a spoiled vote, and it was obvious that a lot of candidates had either organised or taken part in a mock election in school," says the examiner.
Along with the evaluation of CPSE, the chief examiner has also released reports on Junior Certificate Spanish, Italian, French, German and Leaving Certificate music.
The report on Junior Certificate French emphasised that more needed to be done to ensure the language was regularly used in the classroom. "In this way, candidates will more easily identify vocabulary elements on tape and use them in written expression," it said. The report on Italian points out several sections of the higher and ordinary level papers where answering is weak.
Despite this, the marks in the subject are relatively healthy. But the report says the number of "native speakers" who take the exam may influence the number of students gaining A grades.
The report on Spanish says the low number of students of the language "is virtually static", probably because schools have to offer other languages instead.