Ailbhe Nic Cába
Staff Writer
The endless wait is finally over for the class of 2012. With results in hand, some are elated, others, wishing they had knuckled down a lot earlier. The following thoughts arose from a Twitter debate with a friend whom I seldom agree with! Where do those that under-perform in the Leaving Cert end up? Oh that’s it, they’re ‘ground up and made into sausage rolls’. I beg to differ. Lest we forget the generations that annually exited school with no Leaving Cert who have contributed something un-paralleled, if not greater, I asked, making this slight nation of ours a jewel in the eyes of the world.
Needless to say, the argument dispelled there.
As someone who hails from a tradition where education was always considered a fruitful transition from ignorance to insight, I am surprised to find myself questioning how well the Leaving Cert serves the thousands that it assembles each year.
My Leaving Cert experience was rather orthodox. I honed in on my preferred subjects and set out to prove myself in the exams. I received re-assuring congratulations from the school Principal as I entered my Alma Mater on D-Day to learn the prospects of my future. Friends spotted my tentative gaze as I scanned the disorientating series of numbers and letters before my eyes. ‘Is it bad Ailbhe?’ In truth, I had exceeded my own expectations. Delight set in as I began to comprehend that a gateway to third-level was secured. The CAO offer arrived, all was well. Around me, however, many who were expected to ace it were disappointed by their under-performance. Others faced the nauseating realisation that their only option was to repeat.
Is it reasonable that the rest of our lives will be determined, at the age of 16 to 19, by our performance on one day by examiners that will dispute whether to award an A while others would struggle to think ones essay merits a C.? Two years on from receiving my own Leaving Cert results, I ponder over those I shared my secondary school days with. Some who simply did not suit the system which they had little option but to pursue. The Leaving Cert is well and good for those that excel academically, granting the ticket to university, when that is their chosen path. There is, may I say, an air of ambivalence, if not haughtiness towards those of our peers that shine at the creative arts and trades and will never wish to enter into the marathon that is third level studies. ‘Educate that you may be free’ the historical champion, Thomas Davis said. Have those of us that have trailed the path of university Enlightment ironically chained ourselves to a very narrow view that formal education is an absolute necessity in life?
I reflect on a spell, not long passed, when the Leaving Cert and in turn, university, was a luxury, reserved for the children of professionals. Off-springs from lesser means were forced to look elsewhere for opportunities with many roaming the well-worn path of emigration to Dublin, if not abroad, in the interim, educating themselves on the realities of life. Need I speak of the Irish diaspora we hear of that built the city of London with many more making it to the pinnacle of politics on Capitol Hill? Have we lost sight of the value of skills notwithstanding education? George Bernard Shaw, Paddy Kavanagh, Seán O’Casey, J.B Keane, boosted by many females; the list of our literary giants for whom formal education ended early is endless.
Never, however, did it impede those at the fore of Irish literature from achieving boundless acclaim to become Irish and international literary gems. Add to that our most successful business, political and musical personalities that never progressed to secondary or third level education and will stand to earn a greater monetary reward than those of us who face the daunting prospect of long-term unemployment after college, as a consequence of the recession.
I am guilty of continually pin-pointing the absence of education as the root-cause of criminality in our country. There is a depth of truth in that outlook, yet, there are many for whom education and advancing to university is not always a priority or even an option yet don’t end up in Mountjoy.
With early-school-leavers rates peaking in disadvantaged areas, the wave of change modest opportunities, aside from schooling, such as civic development can bring to ensure they avoid a life of idleness, which so often leads to the dreaded rot of criminality
Equally, for all its follies, Ireland’s Civil Service is comprised of countless talented people who took other forms of examination aside from the Leaving Cert to secure employment that guaranteed a solid income along with opportunities to climb the ladder.
I will never overlook the memory of my most influential secondary school teacher telling of her close friend who outclassed the rest at history but simply refused to race-write an essay in forty minutes, understanding the Leaving to be nothing more than a glorified memory test. The same friend achieved a D1 in the subject, a dismal result in many people’s view, while four years later she finished with a degree and a perfect 1.1 score (Even if it was from UCD!) What a contrast, what proof that the Leaving Cert should never be the bar against which we measure one another.
Two years on in the comfortable cocoon of university, I can wonder what the hype was all about. Am I anti-education? No. Watching those that have floundered in 2012, I now understand that had I under-achieved in 2010, I wouldn’t be lying 10 feet under with an epitaph disgracing my woeful attempt at pleasing my parents or competing with my peers.
Results are important but thankfully, in this age, never critical. Debates on the value of the state examinations rage across internet discussion boards with many calling for their immediate abandonment citing them as a waste of tax-payers money that leave our bright young things with no grasp on life in the real world. For many, the Leaving Cert is an endurance test, forgotten as soon as the books are burnt and the coveted score of 600 points is achieved.
For me, it instilled an appreciation for the range of subjects I took which have, in turn, enriched my adult life with literary, mathematical, musical and domestic abilities. The Leaving Cert didn’t style me. Whatever the end result for sixth years students last Wednesday, I say never be bound by it, instead, embrace education. The appreciation it has given me for the array of backgrounds I was sophisticated amongst has left me ever the wiser on life in the real world.
