Yesterday's Morning Ireland had a clip from a student who benefited from the new maths bonus policy, the subject being his strongest anyway. He said something along the following lines: “students taking maths in the Leaving got more points for a D1 in higher level than an A+ in ordinary level.” So how artificial – or not – are the real benefits, I wonder?
Then there were increased numbers taking higher-level Gaeilge, the test having been made easier by upping the points for the oral part of the exam. What received less coverage however, was the “massive increase” in exemptions for sitting the Gaeilge test. (Irish Independent, Orla Bradshaw, Wednesday 8thAugust). And this despite its Official Ireland “compulsory” status.
The Indo article said that 7,000 were exempt for sitting Gaeilge in the Leaving Certificate this year – up 35% on only five years ago. The same piece neglected to say how many had sat the Leaving as a whole, but Newstalk put it at 55,815. That is more than 12.5% with official exemptions. That is, it did not include those many students who simply did not turn up for the exam on the day.
So what it is the overall figure for those not sitting "compulsory" Gaeilge this year?
The Irish Times “Results 2012” supplement put the number sitting the Gaeilge exam at 42,947. So if 55,815 sat the Leaving, that would infer that roughly 23% did not turn up for Gaeilge .
Time for establishment Ireland to end the pretence and the self-deception.
17 comments:
"End the failed policy of compulsion." Some chance of that. The State is based on a lie and the language compounds it. The State has one, and always only one goal, and that is save itself come what may. People don't count...
One of the ways it does this, is through the sickness known as Complusion. The Irish State is based on a WHEST of Ireland Beau Ideal with no room for rationality. Laughably, one of the reasons the Irish people seem to like this malarkey is due to the "fact," they feel, they have a stake in the decision making process, when they very obviously do NOT. Irish SHEEP always go MOOOOOOO...
The potent entity of FG and Labour, have shown exactly where they stand, when it comes to knowing what's best for the Population...On the side of the Banks and GLORIFIED STUPIDITY. That's the beginning and end of it, that's all they care about. That's apart from their fat salaries, pensions and perks. Oh and a bit of the Gaelic...
FG are what they always were. Labour should be disbanded.
GM, the pretence of compulsory Irish, is just another form of the many subtle controls the yobos in authority in this soggy backwater, use, to destroy true individuality....AHHH A BIT OF THE GAELIC...Aided and abetted by one of the most subversive medias on the planet: RTE for example, paying cringe-worthy nonentities frighteningly obscene amounts of money to massage their egos...A company which thinks SATIRE is something you put on the wheel of your car.
Says it all really, D. The Official Ireland bollocksology of those without exemptions having to "study" a subject they have no intention of taking the exam on.
And not a whimper about it anywhere.
@Dakota. Maybe they should disband RTE too?
@ GM. Another example of "gobshiteism", as you might say yourself. This is Ireland after all.
They have dumbed down the maths course, the real problem is that we have to many maths teachers without maths degrees and this is not a joke. It costs about 1.5 billion to "Promote" the teanga. So vested interests would lose out, the "ban an ti" in the gaelteacht to other assorted interest groups. If they are so keen on the teanga, why should I have to pay to learn it at state sponsored bodies?. We love to live with our invented history.Just read in offical report on the Blasket Islands, the home of GM's beloved Peig, that by 1953, the 70 odd(and they appeared so!!) residents were the last people would could not speak a word of English.Another report from 1928, stated that the language was in terminal decline due to emmigration. So has the situation changed in this regard??
Don't know how welcome a dissenting voice will be, but I'll give it a go anyway.
I know some of you would like to imagine a backlash of Irish bourn kids rejecting the language in ever greater numbers, but there are a few other factors in this that need to be taken into account.
The large influx of eastern Europeans since the last Census means it is inevitable that the number of young people that qualify for an Exemption would increase over the last few years, and will likely increase for the next few years.
I don't know what proportion of the increase can be explained by this, but it is likely to be significant.
It does not matter anyway. Bottom line there are no jobs out there. You would be better off learning chinese than Irish unless you want to be a national school teacher in Ireland.
"So has the situation changed in this regard??" No John it hasn't. The Irish State was a complete disaster from day one. A scramble for the booty by individuals with no style, sophistication or foresight. HICKS. If anything it just gets worse as time goes on. Each subsequent generation on this Island seems to be far thicker than the last. It's as if God rounded up every last leery imbecilic fool in the World, over the last 5000 years, and just dumped them all in Dublin.
"Another report from 1928, stated that the language was in terminal decline due to emmigration." Do you know what's SCARY about that? They actually needed to compile a report to tell them the BLOODY obvious. Another thing which hasn't changed one jot.
@Marcus "Bottom line there are no jobs out there." Schhhh the bloody obvious musn't be spoken on the MAD ISLAND. Don't worry though, there's a QUANGO looking after it!
Never mind those who get exemeptions for being foreign born school kids- the Real decline in those Passing irish is at ordinary level - i.e.those with no aptitude/ interest( otherwise they would have done honours) - it seems many who are Enrolled for the exam don't make it to the exam hall- ( after all even if they are serious about getting to college and are good students otherwise, IT's will take them with no Irish- so will TCD which always required Any language other than English as a qualifier.
Oh and many who DO turn up sit in the hall for the minimum of 1/2 an hour and then leave- now in WHAT other subject does that happen?
and both these categories of ordinary No Shows and Barely There Increase every year.
So, Anon 21:38.
What about the 10.5% who did not turn up? Those without official exemptions?
And what - as Anna has pointed out - about the many who feel duty-bound to turn up for half-an-hour and skip? That's been going on for years, by the way.
But let's not allow reality to intrude on the Official Ireland illusion.
"Dissenting voices " have their contexts, I think.
To the 10.5% who did'nt bother to turn up, I say more power to them, If they don't care about the F beside Gaeilge on their transcript, I don't see why I should.
As for people showing up for the exam but not actually doing it, a strange thing to do at the best of times, looking at this years results it dosent seam to be hapening, at least not any more for Irish than for ordinary English or Maths.
Lets assume that if you leave after half an hour your not going to get any better than a D3, for Ordinary Irish this means that no greater (Probably much less) than 2300 or 9.9% did this for the Irish ordinary Level Exam.
Compare this with Ordinary English 1750 or 10%, or with ordinary Maths with 5900 or 17.4%
'To the 10.5% who did'nt bother to turn up, I say more power to them, If they don't care about the F beside Gaeilge on their transcript, I don't see why I should."
If they don't turn up for the exam they have will not have sat the exam, therefore they will not get an "F". They will have nothing next to Gaeilge on the certificate.
I didn't turn up for the Gaeilge exam when I did the Leaving, but other students did as they were pressurised by the school. They got the "F"s, not me.
On the second point, you can't correlate grades achieved with time spent doing the exam. It is quite possible to sit the complete exam and still only get an F.
Also, could you please sign your posts.
@ GM. Anony Mouse is plainly a frustrated, stupid fool unworthy of the dignity of direct repsonse.
No doubt he is akin to the flat earthers you mentioned in a previous blog. He will believe what he wants in spite of damning evidence to the contrary. The kind who keep Ireland in the dark ages.
Hi DB, I did'nt insult you, I dont see why you would feel the need to try to insult me.
Indeed it is possible to sit the whole exam and still get an F, however it stands to reason that you are very unlikely to get better than a D3 if you leave after half an hour.
As such I said that no greater and probably much less than the number who got a D3 or less could have left after half an hour, ie everyone who left after half an hour got a D3 or less, but not everyone who got a D3 or less left after half an hour.
The point being that leaving after half an hour is either not very common, or not something that happens only in the Irish Exam as the area where it would show up on the results, D3 grades or less is not out of proportion with the corresponding grade area of other subjects.
Finaly, why include an option to post anonymously if you don't want people to?
Be nice to each other now! Anon, I know there is an option to post anonymously, but that is down to the Blogger software. Ideally, it's better if people sign their comments - even with a pseudonym like mine (once only one is used) - as it makes it easier for readers to track the comments.
Also, signing comments makes them less likely to end up on the spam box, as they are more easily identified.
Cheers.
Fair Enough, I will sign any comments with 'An Coileán' in future.
-An Coileán.
Whatever you want, as long as it's consistent. What's that translated from Dev's First Official Language, as a matter of interest?
"-An Coileán."
Very snappy.
Post a Comment