Ireland has given all junior cert and leaving cert students 100% in oral and practical parts of their exams!! [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[Holdmenow]

The Irish department of education has awarded ALL students 100% in all oral exams (for languages) and all practical exams (music and home economics). All of the practicals only account for a part of their full grade (usually 25% or so). I think it’s a lovely gesture in these hard times! What do you think?

[Holdmenow]

Title should say “their” 🙈🤣

[TenPenceMix]

I agree

[Pinkflipflop85]

I'm a bit divided on that one.

I think it is pretty crap for those students who have worked bloody hard all year to be awarded the same percentage as those who haven't really bothered.

[JumboSauce]

Do you think that might unfortunately take away from the value of their results and how they are perceived, as the generation who didn’t work for their results but were just given ‘pity’ grades? I don’t think this personally but can certainly see this as a developing perception and future employers might do.

[Holdmenow]

@Pinkflipflop85 I hear you but they still have to pass the paper so it’s not an automatic pass mark by any means.

[kingkuta]

I think its a terrible idea. For a multitude of reasons.

[Holdmenow]

@JumboSauce I think I’m hard times like this ppl will have to just deal with it. They still have to pass the written paper and the listening exam papers so as I understand it’s only a percentage of the whole mark.

[Holdmenow]

@kingkuta what reasons may I ask?

[BeetrootRocks]

So the way they've framed it is interesting but what it actually means is their final mark will be based on their written, effectively?

[BeetrootRocks]

I also think giving students 100% because times are difficult is a bit odd.

If they going to be medics in particular it's important to know whether they know their stuff or not.

[BeetrootRocks]

Where did I get medics from? Misread the op sorry

[kingkuta]

Why should a pupil who been studying really hard and realistically would have got close to 100% get the same mark as someone who would have achieved less than 20%? Completely demotivating for alot of pupils. It makes a mockery out of the whole exam process and will devalue them for the whole of the year. It just makes no sense, why stop at oral & practical? These children will have had mocks and so I dont see the issue in giving them results based on their ability and past results.

[Holdmenow]

@Beetrootrocks yes well you need to pass the written anyway so you can’t pass on an oral alone as such.

[kingkuta]

I'm sure the parents of kids who haven't bothered their arse to ever revise will be thrilled though

[Holdmenow]

@kingkuta because not ALL schools do mocks and mocks are marked by the teachers (JC AND LC are marked externally) they are done in feb when the course isn’t really finished, and it’s ONLY a percentage of their overall full marks really.

I can see how it may be disheartening for those who have studied really hard but for those who didn’t study- they won’t pass on their oral alone! They’ll need to make up the extra percentage with their written and listening!

Also in terms of music at LC Level...you don’t really do music at that level unless you have musical ability etc

[BeetrootRocks]

Yes, holdme, see my previous post.

[Deadringer]

They didn't do it to be kind. They can't hold the oral exams so the delayed written tests will be what really matters. If a student is brilliant at a language then yes its a shame that they have received the same score as someone who is rubbish, but they are still brilliant at the language, can still use it for college and beyond, so does it really matter.

[LadyEloise]

A crazy idea.
It would be better to cancel the orals/ aurals / practicals and not count them for exams or for teachers to give a fair mark in respect of their ability.

[cansu]

Actually that is really pretty awful. I think that unless children are given their predicted grades based on their mocks and past exams then their grades will be useless in the future. I am also not sure how universities will cope as they will have more students passing with the grades needed than places. How will they choose the students who will get the places if everyone is over graded?

[Thisismytimetoshine]

What a very strange thing to do. Discounting them from the exam process completely may have been fairer?

[Holdmenow]

@cansu but they don’t need to pass a language to get into university here. The most that will happen Is that they will get 5-10 extra points. I’m sure the department has thought about all of the possible outcomes. To be honest the JC has not much bearing on future studies (unless they go to the U.K.) and at which point again foreign languages and Irish are neither here nor there. U.K. looks at English, maths and science

@Deadringer I know they didn’t do it to be kind but they didn’t HAVE to do it I suppose

[Holdmenow]

@Thisismytimetoshine that would have led to absolute UPROAR I can guarantee it. I think the way they did it was the lesser of two evils as such.

[Deadringer]

Holdmenow i agree with you, i was disagreeing with the poster who suggested it was a 'pity' grade. I don't see it that way at all. Like you op i am sure its part of a bigger plan by the dept of education and i trust that they know what they are doing. If there is one thing i have learned in the last few days it's that in ireland we trust our government, even though we might not always agree with them, unlike mumsnetters from other countries.

[Holdmenow]

HH @deadringer

[Clavinova]

Why can't school language teachers in Ireland be trusted to assess the oral ability of Leaving Cert students aged 17-19? Surely this is tested in the classroom on a daily basis?