Sick of hearing about the Leaving Cert

Harry Angstrom

Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying f**k that the Leaving Cert is starting tomorrow? It seems that I'm the only one, as the news and media is full of it today. Pat Kenny was talking about it, Tubbers was talking about it, and right this minute on Newstalk they're having a discussion about the bloody Leaving Cert Maths syllabus. I don't give a f**k!!

Why can't they just go in, do their exams and get on with it instead of all the media hype that goes with it? I've had access to the UK TV channels for over 20 years and I don't think I've ever seen a news report about the UK equivalent of the Leaving Cert. It's a non-issue in the UK. It happens, people do it. End of story. I couldn't tell you when they start or when they finish or when the results come out in the UK. I've got cousins in England who've gone through the education system there but they don't harp on about their exams. Because there's always so much saturation coverage here, I could pretty much tell you the date of every single exam and what's likely or unlikely to come up!

This country is obsessed with the Leaving Cert to a very unhealthy degree. It's not the be all and end all and I wish the media would get over their unhealthy obsession with it.

the_syco

Oh look... another thread about the LC. I wish people would stop posting about it :rolleyes: :P :pac:

Harry Angstrom

Touché

coylemj

It's an annual event that you just have to put up with and as it starts in early June, there's usually no major political or sporting event competing against it for media coverage. Except..... my mother always reminds us at this time of the year that the morning she started the LC they listened to the news on the wireless only to hear that the Allied forces had invaded the beaches of Normandy - June 6th, 1944.

The LC is a big event in households that have a son or daughter doing the exam so RTE and the rest of the media feel it's worth reporting.

lace

I too find it annoying to hear about it every day and I agree it's way too hyped up in this country in general - it just stresses the kids out.

However, although those of us who have completed it and moved on have no interest in it, the subject is important to the thousands of kids taking it (and their parents) and broadcasters know people will tune in. For the kids, it feels like listening to the experts discuss the papers the night before will somehow help them prepare and make them perform better the next day. I remember listening to the radio show religiously the night before every exam.

Rigor Mortis

When you consider it is an event which impacts on family life for the months leading up to it the Leaving Cert is a huge event, not just for the thousands of kids taking it. Parents tend to be just as interested as the kids who are sitting it.

As for hyping it, it is a huge exam, with very significant consequences. Its not that a good leaving cert is an absolute necessity, but it does help open the next set of opportunities for you.

DebDynamite

Totally agree.

Also, do the media realise there are others schools out there besides Loretto on the Green? :rolleyes:

Dan Dare

Spot on OP. It probably sells an awful lot of newspapers.

mike65

Coverage of the Leaving Cert exams are like "Summer reading" articles in August, a tired ritual designed to fill newsprint./airtime. Every year the same characters are wheeled out. On Pat Kennys radio programme they tell us about how to prepare for exams that the pupils have been preparing for since last year. Fatuous nonsense, the lot of it.

jack presley

Ireland is a small country where feck all happens for the most part so the media love annual events like the LC where they can pull out the same stories they had last year. The first baby of the new year, visiting a school the day of the All-Ireland, there are loads of them.

baalthor

The A level results are definitively reported on in the UK media.

mike65

Exactly - the results are. That is also a useful peg, for heated debates in the press about falling standards/grade creep/oh they must be fiddling the numbers to make everything look.

old hippy

baalthor wrote: »

The A level results are definitively reported on in the UK media.

As are the exams, themselves - more likely because there's an unanswerable question or the questions are too difficult/dumb.

coylemj

The media in Ireland are obsessed with exams.

Discuss.