Godfrey's Gospel: Third-level focus does us all a disservice 

THERE were a lot of tears around the country at the weekend. The annual merry-go-round had started and that’s nothing compared to the floods of tears which will be witnessed over the coming days.

I am talking about schools re-opening and the results of the Leaving Certificate being published.

I must admit I was a little bit disappointed on Thursday last when I saw the first students in their school uniforms. They may have been ‘back’ from the previous day – as some schools were – but it was Thursday before I saw the first of them.

Then on Friday morning, I woke to the news that the Leaving Cert results were out. Again, another very traumatic day for students and parents alike. The news said there were fewer top marks than in previous years, but this was all down to the fact the department of education was trying to slowly re-introduce a level playing field. In other words, the artificial percentage increase in grades added during the pandemic, were being reduced.

"On Friday morning, I woke to the news that the Leaving Cert results were out. Again, another very traumatic day for students and parents alike."

It may sound very little to those of us who no longer care about such matters, but to a student trying to get into one of the ‘elite’ courses in our universities, a reduction of any sort in points awarded could spell the end of their dreams – for now at least.

We are told they will be competing for much-coveted places in our third-level institutions with students who were given a higher percentage increase in their points last year. But I suppose you must start somewhere – and there will always be someone, somewhere, who will suffer.

Speaking of suffering, that sense of doom and gloom will be nothing compared to the distraught parents – and children – at primary schools all over the country later this week, as these schools re-open.

Coffee shops all over the place can look forward to a booming business for the first few mornings as mothers – and dare I say some fathers, try to come to terms with the fact that their pride and joy, who has occupied every second of their waking day, has started a journey which will last for maybe the next 17 years or more. Suddenly, the whole house will be turned upside down. God love the parents the morning their little one decides he or she has had enough of school and doesn’t want to go any more.

This is one watershed moment in a lifetime of such moments, just like what faced Leaving Cert students at the weekend. Some shed tears of joy, others from bitter disappointment – justified in some cases, not so in others where a distinct lack of work reaped just rewards.

But then there is the whole CAO saga, which still has to be endured to see if the points garnered in the Leaving Cert are enough to get a place in the preferred third level college. I say college, because institution sounds a little like a prison and we all know the student experience at third level is far from what you would expect in a prison.

That is not taking away from the third level. Unfortunately, we have a fascination with third-level qualifications in this country. Once upon a time, people were happy if they sat their Leaving Cert. Then it became necessary to have a third-level degree – of any kind – for any job. Now you see references to the fact that it is not necessary, but preferable, if an applicant for a job has a Masters.

Thank God I didn’t finish my education when that notion was being bandied about. Ireland was still at the stage where two honours in the Leaving Cert or passing the Matriculation, as it was called, guaranteed you a place at third level, if you or your parents could afford it, to most courses in university.

A recent addition was the Institutes of Technology, where a more hands-on approach was taken to courses and these could be used as a stepping stone to get a degree. In time these establishments also offered degree courses – now called Level 8, I believe. Then along came the PLC courses, which again offered another path to ‘higher’ education – and before we knew it, the rot had set in.

Now, there is a course somewhere which can be used as a ‘stepping stone’ to another level and so on until eventually a student will get to where they really want to, or thereabouts.

While it is great that students have an excellent education – as my late mother used to say ‘a good education is not a heavy load to carry’ – the problem is employers have used this spiralling cycle as a yardstick to judge people – when it says absolutely nothing about the applicants’ capabilities.

You can have the most points, carry a sack load of degrees in your pocket, but be unable to make eye contact with someone, shake their hand and say a simple hello. Does that mean they are the best person to do a job – I don’t believe so.

Efforts are being made to encourage students to pursue careers by way of apprenticeships, but that is only a drop in the ocean. And then there are entire sectors, such as parts of our healthcare system and hospitality, which are being ignored because of poor pay and conditions.

Then we wonder why so many of our young people opt to emigrate or suffer with mental issues because they believe, rightly or wrongly, they have failed if they do not have the string of qualifications on paper to do a job, they know they would excel at.

Yes, there are basic requirements to do any job, but not necessarily a master’s degree in it. If we want to see effective change and avoid more tears in the future, attitudes to education must change.