Vol. 398 No. 2
16 Mr. Pattison asked the Minister for Education the way in which she intends to minimise the number of students who will be forced to repeat the leaving certificate this year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
21 Mr. Pattison asked the Minister for Education if she is satisfied with the situation whereby 6,500 to 7,000 students are forced to repeat the leaving certificate each year; if she has carried out any study to ascertain the reason for this; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 21 together. Pupils are not compelled by any departmental regulation to repeat the leaving certificate examination. Students choose to repeat the examination in order to improve their overall performance for a variety of reasons and I do not propose to deny them the opportunity of doing this.
Would the Minister not agree that one of the basic problems in the increasing number of students who tend to repeat the leaving certificate is that generally children tend to enter second level education too early? When pupils sit their leaving certificate they are essentially too young and immature to make the choice of a lifetime. I believe there is some merit in going back to the concept, which was introduced at one stage, but not followed through in all schools, of a transitional year which tried to slow down the level of progress and enable pupils find their true level.
We touched very briefly on this issue before the Deputy came into the House. As the Deputy knows, generally children are 12 years plus before they enter second level education. Out of the 850 second level schools, over 600 now provide a six year cycle of one kind or another, for example, VPTI, VPT2, a transition year and the option of a repeat leaving certificate. The transition year is provided in a number of schools. By order of the Fine Gael Government in the preparation of the Estimates in February 1987 which they left us — I accept that we could have changed this — the transition year was to be stopped except in schools where it was already in effect.
I was glad to hear the Minister say, if I am correct in my interpretation of her reply, that she has no intention of minimising the number of students who can repeat the leaving certificate. Can the Minister say if any study has been carried out at departmental level to ascertain the reason for the high number of students repeating the leaving certificate?
I took the Deputy's two questions together because he seemed to refer to an element of compulsion in both of them, in particular Question No. 21 which referred to the number of students who are forced to repeat the leaving certificate each year. In my reply I said that nobody is forced to repeat the leaving certificate. It is my intention beginning with the senior cycle this year and continuing for the next two years, which will coincide with the abolition of the matriculation examination and various other measures, that a student can repeat the leaving certificate as often as he or she wants to but the combination of points from one year to another will not be allowed after 1992. A student will be judged on the results of his or her leaving certificate in one year. Of course, a student can sit the leaving certificate examination as often as he or she wants to.
The word "forced" in my question referred to the forced circumstances in the leaving certificate itself.
Fair enough.
Does the Minister not agree that the number of students repeating the leaving certificate could be minimised if her Department allowed second level students to repeat the year of their choice? Would she not agree further that this would be a much better option than giving students the only option they now have of repeating a very stressful year?
That is an incorrect statement. The Deputy must not be aware of the notification of an arrangement which was sent to all post-primary schools during last year's summer holidays and which was implemented in the academic year beginning in September 1989. This arrangement provides for a greater relaxation of the rule in regard to repeats which was introduced in 1985. It is now very much decided by the principals of the schools in conjunction with the parents.
I asked if it would be better to let students decide——
A brief question, please.
——which year they want to repeat and that it should not depend on the decision of the principal of the school.
Questions, please.
Does the Minister not agree that it would be better if students could make that decision?
Young people have certain ideas on various matters but I am sure Deputy Ahearn will agree that a decision in regard to repeating the leaving certificate examination is best left to the principal, the teachers and the parents who know best whether a child needs to repeat the examination.
