Post Leaving Cert Disaster

I am just finished doing a science PLC (Post Leaving Certificate) course and I found the science aspects of the year interesting enough, the trouble is only half of my classes are science based the other half are classes designed simply to stretch out the year.

I am just finished doing a science PLC (Post Leaving Certificate) course and I found the science aspects of the year interesting enough, the trouble is only half of my classes are science based the other half are classes designed simply to stretch out the year.

Communications is a brilliant example of this. The assignments are long and pointless and the classes ruin any enthusiasm people have for learning. This class is mandatory and you have to get a distinction in it to get a proper diploma at the end of the year. This applies to almost all PLC courses around the country.

To be honest, the curriculum for communications is demeaning to me and the rest of the students. You have to write up a load of formal and non-formal letters which is basically a return to what we learned in primary school. We also had to learn how to send faxes – I don’t know anybody who still uses fax machines on a regular basis! To add insult to injury, next we had to make a non-verbal Christmas card. So here I am, instead of filling up beakers or struggling to grasp the complexity of genetics, they have me drawing pictures of Santa!

We need a well-funded education system where courses and curriculum are evaluated regularly and democratically decided by teachers and students. In reality, most of my class mates won’t get a place in college this year either because their families can’t afford it, or with the lack of jobs, everyone will try to get into college this year which will hike up the points. Why should we have to compete for places in college? Young people who want to go on to third level should have a guaranteed place on a quality course.

These type of PLC courses are blatantly about blurring the unemployment figures and offer no real way out of the dole queues for the majority of young people.  We need quality education and training and young people must fight for this, as well as the basic right to a quality job on course completion, that allows us to utilise our talents and skills.

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

Let them eat cake, not the crumbs off the table…

Next Article

Britain: Fight-back! The only antidote to painful public-sector cuts

Related Posts

FEE holds successful national meeting

By Liam Cullinane

FREE EDUCATION For Everyone (FEE), a national campaign of students opposed to the re-introduction of third-level fees, held its first national meeting on Saturday, the 31 January.

Socialist Youth members participated in the meeting, with students representing FEE campaigns in colleges such as UCC, Trinity, UCD, NUIG, UL and NUI Maynooth.

Read More

“Why I joined the Socialist Party”

After my mother, Susie Long, died in 2007 after waiting seven months for a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure which private patients were receiving within days at the same hospital I naturally became concerned about the link between income inequality and inequality in health in our society.

Read More

Door shut on thousands seeking education

“We aim to develop a smart economy and become known as the innovation island”, according to that esteemed authority on all things “smart”, Brian Cowen. In fact, in his speech in 2008 on “Building Ireland’s Smart Economy”, the word appears over and over again. The word education however is noticeably absent in the 2,000 word speech.