What Do You Think of The Leaving Cert? Ireland 1988

Secondary school students express frustration with the points system used to decide places in third-level education.
With so few jobs available, demand for college places has risen, as has the Central Applications Office (CAO) points required for places in Irish Higher Education Institutions.
Secondary schools students from Abbey Vocational School in County Donegal, Carrigaline Community School in County Cork and Garbally College in Ballinasloe, County Galway are almost unanimous in their dislike of the points race,
It’s very unfair system.
Some of the students do not believe two weeks of exams can decide five years of study adequately. Having a bad day could see a student repeating their exams, or studying a university course they do not really want to do.
One student would prefer to see the introduction of continuous assessment. Another thinks the Universities Central Council on Admissions (UCCA) system for entry to colleges in the United Kingdom is superior to the CAO. It allows students the opportunity to write a paragraph about their interests, hobbies, ambitions and achievements.
Many students argue the points race does not measure talent or aptitude. Studying medicine needs seven good honours in the Leaving Certificate, but these results do not take into account an individual’s suitability to be a doctor.
An intelligent person mightn’t be the most understanding person in the world, and that’s what you need to be a doctor.
A student is critical of points being a requirement to do basic jobs rather than a talent for the role.
It’s academics that are getting into it and they’re no good.
One student believes the points race is necessary as there are so few jobs available,
It’s necessary to just put the main people out front into the colleges.
‘Give Us a Chance’ was an educational series examining the changes in schooling trends and in the possibilities of school leavers finding a job. The series demonstrated practical ways to make the most of the school system, either by making appropriate choices about exam subjects or by undertaking alternative courses. The series ran from 7 March 1988 to 23 May 1988. It was presented by educationalist and secondary school teacher Mary Kennedy.
This episode of ‘Give Us a Chance’ was broadcast on 9 May 1988. The reporter is David Crean.

[@LukePHickey]

I just sat my LC this year and can safely say that nothing has changed. These arguments are, fustratingly, still as relevant today as they were all those years ago. Hopefully we will finally see some positive change with the new LC system in 2026.

[@DashDrones]

😂😂😂 Things won't change..

[@blueheaven1048]

i did my leaving in 1988. the point system has got actually worse since then.

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

The only test that I took in my life was a driving test, I suffered from several dyslexia all of my life and only found out some years ago when my son came home from school one day and told us that he had a test at school and they found out that he was suffering from dyslexia yet he had an IQ that could have got a place in Cambridge University When I realised what i had it was a great day in my life, from that day on I know I was not stupid in fact I was a smart as most other people but in a different way, I immediately lost the quilt that I had carried from being a young child from the first day in school, I tell young people do not fear if you fail sometimes, just do your best and you will never fail. Never let bad fear of failure stick in your mind

[@carrie20074]

I did my LC in 1988 and was completely traumatised by the exam and the 2 year buildup. I have managed to very successfully navigate my way in the world in the US and UK and work for global companies. I still have nightmares to this day and when i go home and walk by my old school i feel ill.

[@movinon1242]

From what I was told, you need to start specializing your high school coursework at 12-14 years of age, so you'll be eligible for certain leaving certs.
If you think you want to be an engineer, you need to have that figured out by 13. So you'll be able to take the right series of prerequisite courses, that eventually you are eligible to take the right leaving certs to qualify.
And God forbid you decide you don't want to be an engineer after you've focuses your coursework in that dirwction. Or worse, when you're in university. University is free, but you must finish, and its basically impossible to "switch majors".
The US, UK and Australia are littered with incredibly smart Irish-born bar staff, restaurant servers, and tradesmen who just didn't know, at 14 years of age, exactly what they wanted to be doing for the rest of their lives.

[@jakekelly2436]

Facts

[@Novotny72]

Everyone here's about a year older than me. Admittedly, I was in the North, but everything is so familiar. The thoughts, the hair. I can see my classmates in every single one of them.

[@Peter-gi3re]

I did my leaving cert 10 years before this …… same complaints then and probably the same complaints now

[@colinbehan2473]

I did my leaving cert in 1988 too. The system hasn't changed. The only change I see is the hairstyles.

[@katoness]

Left school at 15, didn't do the LC as it was pointless, majority of my friends who did the LC, ended up on building sites.

[@tonycronin4629]

And many of us who did LC went on to become doctors, engineers, pharmacists, vets, run large companies etc. It was only an exam. A single point in time. People will make or break themselves all through their lives. But still, there were plenty of students who did exceptionally well in this here "unfair" system.

[@alanbourke4069]

Sat mine in 1987. Sorry to have to tell the girl at the start, it's still f**ked I'm afraid.

[@Paul5520]

To all you people looking at this video thinking you’re life is over after getting their results, you’d be very foolish to believe that. Take a year out, travel, go to work & enter university/college at 23 as a mature student. Personally if I could go back, I’d likely get a trade too. Maybe I still will. The Irish system is a joke. Continual assessment in 2nd level for over 3 years should be sufficient.

[@gerardkinneen7252]

Anyone else looking at the students trying to figure out what their job is now?
They all look like Lorry drivers.