Life after the Leaving Cert

Last week, in this newspaper, as we looked ahead at the release of this year's Leaving Certificate Examination results, we quoted the principal of Rath Chairn's Colaiste Pobail, Macdara O Duillearga, who simply said that "there is life after the Leaving Cert". The past week has been an anxious time for students of the county's second level schools, and their parents and teachers, as they first of all, awaited the results of the actual exams, and then the first round offers of college places from the Central Applications Office (CAO). In Meath, 1,939 students sat the Leaving Certificate or Leaving Certificate Applied exams. It is a stressful and worrying time for students, as a greater demand on places means that points are going up, especially as more are opting for third-level education due to the fact that there is less work available. The first round of CAO offers published this week marks a return to a 1980s-style 'points race' as record numbers of students seek a college place, according to an analysis carried out by the Irish Times on Monday. Two-thirds of the 70 most popular honours degree courses registered an increase in points. Points moved upwards for virtually all higher-level courses in science, computing, agriculture, medicine and nursing. There will be many students worried as a result of this greater demand, particularly as colleges are talking about capping places due to a lack of funding to run institutions, and increasing speculation about the return of third-level fees in some format. But students should take heed of Macdara O Duillearga's viewpoint that there is life after the Leaving. The examination at the end of five years in secondary school is not, to use a well worn cliche, the be all and end all. Those students who maybe didn't get what they hoped they would, or are only a few points off and are awaiting the next round of offers, will be extremely tense at the moment. Some may be disappointed. What they don't need is added pressure from other sources, be it parents, the schools, the media, or hackers carrying out cyber attacks on the CAO's computer system. Quite often, parents, who naturally are worried about their children and their future, can be the cause of increased strain if they become too overbearing at a time like this, not allowing a youngster some space to work out things for themselves. That is not to be critical of parents who are genuinely concerned, but sometimes taking a step back can be helpful. Rose Tully, PRO of the Post Primary National Parents Council, encouraged parents to focus on what their child has achieved, not on what they should, could or might have achieved. She pointed out that there are many options open, which should be explored with the students to help them make informed decisions about their future. The role of schools in their treatment of students and their Leaving Certificate results is also one that has to be questioned. In the eyes of teachers, all of the students should be treated as achievers. Yet, it will often happen that some schools will concentrate on their high achievers, which, of course, are good PR for the school. But how does that make the student of lesser ability who may not have as great a results sheet, feel? There are schools in the locality who have been known to stage photographs of the principal and teachers with their high achieving students, for submission to newspapers around the time that they are holding an open day for the following year's intake of first years. Such blatant manipulation of their Leaving Certificate students is not right, and a huge slap in the face to the rest of the class. The media, of course, plays along with this, because it wants the story. Newspapers must also share their responsibility for the saturation coverage of the exam results, which serves only to add to the students' headaches. In our Leaving Certificate coverage, we decided to concentrate on the subjects and schools, rather than focusing on particular students. But those who were responsible for this week's cyber attack on the CAO website, where hackers were able to install a 'denial of service' message and block thousands of students from gaining access to their college offers, has to be condemned in the strongest terms. The students are already under enough strain without having to endure such malicious activity, carried out for what reason we do not know. The website was down for several hours, but thankfully was back in operation so that 23,000 offers were accepted by Monday evening. Those who weren't among the 23,000 should not be unduly worried - life goes on, even if not always according to plan.