“We have been denied the right to learn”

Unless you’ve been hibernating under a particularly large rock these past few months, you’ll undoubtedly have heard more than one opinion on the current ASTI pay dispute. Teachers, the Government, PPF and work to rule have captured the headlines, and the resulting frustrations of thousands of secondary students nationwide have captured the streets. Leaving Certs have been exploited as the ballast for negotiations and, as a result, our futures have been jeopardised in the name of industrial dispute.

As is fairly obvious, students are in a state of unrest. In the run up to exams, disruption, chaos and protest have been allowed to prevail at what is ordinarily an extremely stressful time of year. Fears of further strikes and delays of exams loom over us at a time when the need for stability in the classroom is at its highest. The uncertainty of who will supervise and ultimately correct our papers has left us in an ever increasing predicament, culminating in mass demonstration and discontent.

To say that we are worried is an understatement. Confusion over oral and practical examination dates, the marks of which total up to 50% of overall grades, has placed added stress on Leaving Cert students, and hindered the revision of courses. Revision timetables have been upset by the series of one, two and sometimes three day strikes.

We have been denied the right to learn. We have been placed at a disadvantage, not only against other years, but also our own. Not all of the teachers in Ireland are members of the ASTI. Other schools have been continuing as per usual. The strikes have not been universal. As a result, the majority of students have been hindered in their quest for points, points that constitute our entry into Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology, results that remain with us as a direct representation of our time spent in second level education for the rest of our lives.

The student voice has been aired through marches, protest and public demonstration, the like of which this state has never witnessed. In Kilkenny alone, over a thousand students from four central secondary schools convened on the town hall, disrupting traffic for several hours. It was effectively a rolling protest, as students used text messages on mobile phones to spread the word from school to school on a mass level. Students have spoken on TV, radio and the press airing their views, and sent letters to Department and ASTI officials. The little response we have received has been vague.

The feeling among the students is that we’ve been short changed, we’ve been exploited and ultimately ignored. In spite of our protest, whilst we have managed to create a splash, the ripples have gone largely undetected. We have received few words of reassurance, and those that did reach us were quickly over shadowed by contradictory ASTI response. In a nut shell, we feel like our problems and worries are being seen as a side effect, not the main priority of the issue.

However, our main concern rests with the outcome of our exams; how, and by whom, they will be marked. The supposed solution to this, marking by University graduates, is far from reassuring. To most, if not all, this idea is absolutely preposterous. To consider allowing our papers to be marked by laymen who are not aware of and have never taught, the course is a direct insult to the integrity of our state examinations. If the dispute is not resolved, will our results be viewed with the same respect as those previously and subsequently? Will we always be known as “that Leaving Cert year”?

We are not being answered. Our fears are being disregarded and we are still none the wiser. The Leaving Cert has been at the forefront of so many students’ minds for the past two years. We believe that the only way forward for us is through the door unlocked by state examinations. However, at the most crucial time of the school year, we have been abandoned by those who professed to hold the key.

We are the first students of the new millennium to sit the Leaving Cert, and the fact that we must do so under such a dark cloud has washed away the last vestige of illusion we have as to the real world of work. Oscar Wilde once said “Industry is the root of all ugliness”. In this instance, I think I’d have to agree.