Over the last number of years, secondary schools in Ireland have been dealing with huge changes to our education system. One of them has been the introduction of a new junior cycle. Teachers have many doubts about this new exam, particularly the disconnect between it and the current Leaving Cert.

Over the past few weeks with all the focus on the postponement of the Leaving Cert, junior cycle students were largely forgotten about. This past week though, as schools came back to their online environments after Easter, it came firmly back into focus.

As school leaders sat down to talk to their staff, the question arose from teachers: “What about our third years? With exams cancelled, what will they do for the final six weeks?”

How on earth would they stay focused on learning? Then, naturally, thoughts turned to how can they do Junior Cert exams in September, having been out of direct class contact for six months. How fair is this on them? How accurate could any tests be? And if they were not state-certified, what was the value in them?

When principals listened to their students, the overwhelming feeling was one of disillusionment and disappointment. Many felt they were forgotten about and that what they had been studying for was now wasted. Many of the girls in our school were stressing about how they could manage to stay studying over the summer, while others felt that transition year would be ruined or valuable fifth year learning time lost if they had to start with a month of exams. That is provided they can start as normal.

The irony of all this is that one of the biggest changes in this new junior cycle was the introduction of a new curriculum focus — wellbeing. This was brought in, to quote the circular, to “further enhance the physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing of students”.

There has been a huge focus put on this. Just to try and explain exactly how much importance, schools are being told that, next year, they have to provide 400 hours of wellbeing on their timetables. This is equal to the amount of recommended tuition time for science and history combined! (I have always thought wellbeing should be part of every hour.) When you consider that such a focus is being placed on wellbeing, it seems amazing not one of the many Government advisors considered the students’ wellbeing when they announced their plans to cancel state exams and place them on schools to run after their summer holidays.

Last week, schools around the country realised this was not a working plan and it only took a few days to see ranks being broken. It began in Galway as one school announced it was running with its own summer exams so as to provide a target for students and a suitable end to their junior cycle. Many other schools, including our own, started to follow quickly. If you are wondering why there was a rush from schools to take action, it is because students were drifting away and if you are going to give them exams, to be fair to them you have to give them at least three weeks notice.

Our teachers decided on Wednesday last to give students a junior cycle grade based on an online exam and aggregated grades from previous exams and classwork. It was a decision arrived at through dialogue, common sense and a commitment to student wellbeing. I can only pay tribute to my staff for the dedication they have shown. When the decision was communicated to parents, our office received multiple emails thanking us for thinking of our students first.

There are many different parties involved in secondary schools — the students, teachers, principals, parents and the Department of Education. Everyone has a voice, but they have not always been listened to. Schools have traditionally been run on an authoritarian model, rather than one of consultations and agreement. For the first 60 years of this State, there was no such thing as a dissenting voice. However, silencing people who have concerns about what is going on in our schools has not worked well for us as a country.

Last year the Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, made the first steps to make schools involve students and parents more when he presented the Student and Parent Charter Bill, 2019. In it, there is a new responsibility on all schools on allowing students and parents’ views to be heard so that they are involved in the process.

As we proceed towards this new date of July 29 for the Leaving Cert, it is hard to wonder where this bill now sits. Recent polls from both the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union and National Parents’ Council (Post-Primary) were that they did not want the Leaving Cert to be postponed. The students in fact preferred the option of predictive grading of which clear proposals have now been developed.

If Mr McHugh really wanted to ask students he could do it quite easily, every Leaving Cert student has a CAO number, create a form or survey and give real credence to valuing student voice. Yet the minister and all the major players in education don’t seem to want to listen to anyone else. What interests are being protected if the safety of our students, our staff, and our society isn’t? Is the Leaving Cert that important? In our school, we use the analogy that the Leaving Cert is just another step on the journey of life. It is a major station but it is not your final destination. We place importance on it, but we don’t want our students to believe it defines them. To be honest, it annoys me when I read academics talk about it as being this great predictor of success in life. We all know people who have proven this wrong.

People mature at different stages. Success in life shouldn’t be measured in points.

However, try telling that to a 17-year- old who you know in your heart as a teacher will get on well in life but who only measures her success on a set of exam results.

Education needs to realise that what we need to foster in our young people is an attitude that you can always learn, at any age, once you have the right attitude and application.

Everyone knows the Leaving Cert has its faults but we haven’t essentially changed it since 1925. The old argument that it is not perfect but it is fair can go completely out the window this year. No matter what, Leaving Cert 2020 cannot be fair. That has been decided by Covid-19, by students being out of school for months, by all students getting full marks in orals and practicals but other students who have chosen different subjects not getting full marks in their practicals, by some students having no internet access, and by those students who need the most support in our schools not having it when they need it most. The argument that it is bad but it is the best option available is unacceptable, not when you are putting students’ wellbeing at risk.

This year the Leaving Cert shares one connection with the junior cycle — neither will take place in June.

By all accounts, schools will be told they can go ahead with school-based exams in May for third-year junior cycle students this week. Maybe a second announcement could be made about an alternative to proceeding with the Leaving Cert? Then we would know that words such as wellbeing, student voice, and parent charter have real meaning within our education system.

Seán Twomey is principal of St Aloysius’ College, Carrigtwohill.