'Surprise' question on NI Executive proves tricky for politics students
A question on the Northern Ireland Executive may have surprised students sitting the ordinary level politics and society paper as the 2019 Leaving Cert exams officially drew to a close.
This morning, more than 1,312 students sat their final exams in Arabic, Japanese and politics and society.
While the higher level politics paper was “topical”, students sitting the ordinary level exam would have found several questions difficult, according to Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) representative Brendan Greene.
“I thought the ordinary level paper was very difficult, with aspects of it that would have been challenging as well to higher level students.
I was very surprised to see a question on the Northern Ireland Executive because it has been suspended since these students started studying politics. I thought that was quite a difficult question.
A question on imagined communities with a reference to the EU and a school run by direct democracy would have also been quite challenging, he added.
The higher level paper covered a good range of topics, according to the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) politics spokesman Patrick O’Driscoll.
“But the way the questions were phrased might have thrown students.”
Last year, some politics students had to sit three different exams on the same day, Mr O'Driscoll added.
I had two students who sat communications graphics, physics and politics exams on the same day, which meant they had eight and a half hours together.
This year, the schedule changed to prevent it from happening again. "A lot of kids were waiting for a week to finish up but it's better than sitting three exams on the same day.”
