asked the Minister for Education whether it is permissible for adult students not in attendance at secondary schools to take the intermediate and leaving certificate examinations; and, if not, why.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Intermediate and Leaving Certificate Examinations.
55.
The Intermediate and Leaving Certificates testify not merely to a prescribed standard of academic attainment but also to the completion of an approved course of a prescribed duration in a secondary school. Hence the examinations concerned may not ordinarily be taken by students not in attendance at recognised secondary schools. Under a special provision in the regulations, however, any other person may be admitted to the Leaving Certificate examination in one or more subjects and be given a statement setting out the marks and the standard reached.
Is it the position then, that a child having been educated in accordance with his parents' wish, either at home or at a school of the parents' choosing, is excluded from access to the Leaving Certificate, even if he meets all the requirements of the Leaving Certificate examination?
No.
I understood the Minister to say that.
If he meets all the requirements, he is not. The certificate is a certificate of attendance at a recognised secondary school course for a certain period and also of attainment in the examination. If a person is not in attendance at a secondary school——
At a recognised seconday school.
——at a recognised secondary school and wants to have some recognition of his attainment in the examination, he may do the examination and get a certified copy of the marks he got in the subjects and the standard reached, and he can do any or all of the subjects, but he will not get the Leaving Certificate which would certify not alone for the examination attainment but to attendance.
Does the Minister advert to the fact that there are growing numbers of employment opportunities which are now available only on condition that the student is in a position to produce the Leaving Certificate?Does the Minister think it right that where parents exercise their undoubted discretion to direct their own children's education as they think best and then present their children for examination and the children fulfil all the academic requirements of the Leaving Certificate, they should be denied all the employment opportunities that are contingent on having the Leaving Certificate, for no other reason than that they did not go to a school of the State's choice?
This is a matter for the employer, the person employing the student. If he wants his employee to have attended at a secondary school and to have attained a certain standard in the Leaving Certificate, then he will ask for the certificate. If, as often happens, an employer is satisfied with achievements in the examination, he accepts the certified copy of the marks. The university will accept it also.
Do I understand that the certificate of marks obtained will be accepted by the two universities?
It will be accepted by the National University of Ireland for matriculation and by many employers as evidence of attainment of a standard in the examination.