How you feel about mathematical equations is similar to how I feel about nicely drafted statutes - beautiful constructions.

Changing the papers away from a formulaic pattern to a truly chalanging paper might help

I’m just not sure at the moment that the country’s interests are served by people with high points doing medicine who are not really interested in it, likewise law. At least if you interview, you stand some chance of identifying the ones who are actually interested in the subject, rather than just the potential financial returns.

The problem with the points system is that it’s not so much that it’s anonymous any more. It is, however, weighted in such a way as the amount of money you fling at your secondary education - for example via grinds schools - may place certain elements of society at an advantage. That isn’t, strictly speaking, fair either.

I have no problem with the number going in. As long as the exam standard is kept the same year on year it makes no difference. If there is 60,000 people on one year that are deserving of a year they should get there degrees

I agree about the weighting - I don’t think it’s a bad idea per se. I’d also like to see interviews required for medicine, nursing and law. I think it’s already required for teaching (certainly at postgrad level I think anyway).

But that’s just me.

I think the points system should be weighted. i.e. if you get an A in physics and an A in English and apply for physics you should get 200 points for Physics and 50 for English.

The people with high points often get high points by picking the easier subjects like ag science and geography. That needs to be changed.

By the way hope the study is going well Kevin

From what I can gather, it certainly has been dumbed down. The one case I know of is English. Ten or twenty years ago, apparently, poetry or drama questions would zone in very specifically on one aspect of a poet. Today, most questions on studied material will be vague - like, “Give a speech to 5th year students on the poetry of Thomas Hardy” or some such. Clearly, it encourages students to learn off one generic essay, which - with little effort - they can twist to suit the question. My English teacher spins this adaptation, saying that it rewards not only the bright students, but the hard working students. Take what you will from that.

Concerning languages, I’m not sure what level of fluency was needed in times gone by. Nowadays though, I could learn off three different letters and five 90 word essays and still be fairly certain of a high B in the written examine. Equally, most people treat the oral exam as little more than a recital.

I’ll sign-off here, for I must ponder the merits of limiting third-level places - which currently stands at 40,000 per year.

The overwhelming impression I have been getting regards education in this country is not that it is not challenging (that’s an excuse) or that it leads to rote mentality (that’s an excuse as well) but that it’s being perceived as a consumer item. That’s why you have sixteen year olds believing that they should drive what is being taught to them, and not them learning what is given to them.

It’s also seen as a currency - with which you buy your way into university. It’s not the education system itself which is doing this though - it is those going through the system.

Personally - I’m going to come across all old here - I think the Leaving Cert has dumbed down a little bit. I’m not in tune with the idea of projects, because there are serious issues in the UK regarding who is actually doing the project and how much input responsible adults are having into continuous assessment projects there.

Possibly one way to get people to refocus on what an education system is all about is to limit the number of third level places - there seems to be a thousand different colleges in the country now. The issues with education in this country are not, to my mind, limited to the Leaving Certificate - but to the mentality that you don’t do what interests you, you do what will earn you loads of money. This is where the problem lies with physics, medicine and law.

This attitude is killing young minds, I think. But then, possibly, so too are games consoles. I think I’ll go back to pre-aging and wittering on about the youth of today.