“You are a Leaving Cert student during the Covid pandemic. It has been decided that the Leaving Cert will be cancelled. Write a letter to the Minister for Education expressing your views on the matter. In your letter, you should: explain how you feel about the decision, describe the difficulties associated with learning outside of school and give your own opinion on what should be done for students.
Townparks
Convoy
Co Donegal
30th April 2020
Minister for Education
Department of Education and Skills,
Cornamaddy
Athlone
Co. Westmeath
N37 X659
Dear Minister,
My name is __________and I am a Leaving Cert student in __________. I am writing this letter in the hopes that you will get an insight to what it is like trying to learn Leaving Cert courses from home, ways the Department and SEC could help alleviate stress in this unusual time and my personal views as a student on how the 2020 Leaving Cert should proceed.
On the 13th of March, we began online learning. All our teachers had made Google Classrooms as ways to continue teaching us when we were not at school. Each teacher has used a different, innovative way of teaching us, from live online classes, pre-recorded videos or uploading different notes and websites we may find useful. Learning from home has had its difficulties. The environment of a classroom gives motivation, while the comfort of a bedroom can lead to procrastination. In the morning it feels as though every notification from each class comes in at the same time. It can be very overwhelming when you feel everything has to be done at once. It can be difficult to get on top of the workload when you do not have the same motivation you do when you are in a classroom or the same structure you have during a school day.
Every year Leaving Cert students are under immense stress and this year the stress feels like it is doubled. The decision to cancel the orals was met with controversy, but every decision made that affects such a large number of people will never please everyone. I believe it was the right decision and it took a lot of pressure off of myself and other people’s shoulders. Having us do oral and practical examinations along with the written exams in such a compact time when we’ve already missed so much face to face teaching and learning would have been unfair. In order to reduce our stress further I think it would be worth questioning if projects like the History extended research project and other similar projects should be submitted. These booklets must be written in class and as they are official booklets they cannot be taken home. If we were to return to school and have to spend class time writing up a booklet instead of revising material that the teacher may have found it difficult to explain online or we found difficult to understand, it would be unfair. Marking schemes should be revised and a certain amount of leeway and understanding should be applied when marking exams.
With rumours and uncertainty it is hard to stay motivated and study for exams when you don’t know if you have already been judged based on passed exams or will get a chance to fairly sit the exams you’ve been preparing for for two years. On social media a quick search of ‘Leaving Cert’ will show you how divided young people are over how the exams should proceed. I personally would like to see the exams go ahead in Summer if possible. I would not like to be judged based on my mock results as I don’t feel the mocks are an accurate representation of two years of preparation. We sit our mocks with the mindset of ‘if we are going to make mistakes, now is the time’. They are used to help us decide if we are at the right level, get us used to the layout, recognise where points are awarded and allow us to identify what we need to work on.
I don’t believe ‘predicted grades’ from teachers would be a fair judgement of our work either. The teacher sees us for 40, maybe 80, minutes a day. They do not see the hard work and effort we put in during study classes and independent study at home. The Leaving Cert is a two year course, in my opinion, it is only fair we are judged after a full two years. After conversations with my friends I know I am not the only one who feels that if I don’t get the chance to sit exams this year, I will have to repeat 6th year in order to feel like I have been given a fair chance. I feel students who want to sit the Leaving this year should be allowed to do so, provided that it is safe for us to do so.
Thank you for taking time to read this letter.
Yours faithfully,
________________