Emer Neville, Uachtarán of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU), is presenting before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on Leaving Certificate reform, today.

In her opening statement, Neville refers to the Leaving Certificate as a “national affair” and urgently calls for a “complete overhaul of the Leaving Certificate”

“It is clear to us that students do not want a return to the traditional leaving certificate. We can no longer continue to put plasters on a completely broken system, the solution is clear and that is a complete overhaul of the leaving certificate.”

The statement highlighted three main points, Assessments Options, Access to Third-level and Irish Language and Irish Medium Education, outlining what students wish to see from the future of the state exam. .

Changes the ISSU call for

• One, that assessment methods need to change in order to accommodate more diverse skills of students, and with an aim to alleviate the stress that is created by a high-pressure exam schedule at the end of two years of education.


• Two, that access routes to higher education must be addressed in a holistic way alongside discussing examination reform, and more investment to promote equality. The ISSU notes that Ireland ranks 38th out of 38 of the OECD member countries for educational spending.


• And three, on the subject of Irish language and Irish medium education, that further curricular reform is necessary, in order to increase emphasis on oral Irish.

• One, to space out exams, and even have separate examination periods, in order to reduce undue pressure on students’ health and well-being while being examined for their learning achievements.


• Two, to promote more diverse examination and assessment methods, other than terminal exams which test fact-regurgitation and ability to write under time pressure. We would like to note additionally on this point that the current structure of senior cycle examinations particularly favours students with access to private tutoring services over students who do not, whose families cannot afford such supports, which is unfair.


• And lastly, to implement assessments throughout the leaving cert cycle, which may capture and reward students’ diverse learning abilities, and not just their memory.

University and Choices

• One, to overhaul the points system alongside an overhaul of the assessment methods, to allow students to gain points through a variety of assessment opportunities and not only terminal exams.


• Two, to allow students to gain points or other forms of recognition through extracurricular achievements when applying to further and higher education, while of course ensuring that opportunities to take part in such additional activities are available in an equitable manner to all students who may wish to take part in them.


• And three, to greatly increase the number of university admission places through access routes and normalise PLC courses, apprenticeship programs and other forms of further and higher education. The goal should be to reduce the competition of the points race and to support students to have an equal opportunity to attend higher education, and finally address the unacceptable inequality of outcome which is perpetuated under the current points-race system.

Irish Language

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