Scrapping the Leaving Cert would not prepare students for the “real world”, according to Newstalk Breakfast presenter Ciara Kelly. 

Politicians such as Paul Murphy have called for the examination to be replaced with another form of assessment to finish secondary school. 

Shane Coleman said, however, the Leaving Cert is the “least worst option”. 

“At least this system is fair – no one is getting into College because they know the senior professor,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“I have a son going through the Leaving Cert at the moment, it’s a pain in the neck – but sometimes life is difficult. 

“Sometimes a bit of pressure is not a bad thing.” 

Ciara said the “real world” is not a “walk in the park” - and the Leaving Cert reflects that problem. 

“Trying to remove obstacles and obstacles and obstacles which is sort of the modern way – sounds great in theory but doesn't prepare kids for the real world,” she said. 

Students doing their Leaving Cert exams in Bandon, West Cork, 2022. Image: AG News / Alamy Stock Photo

She said things like continuous assessment could present more problems than solutions. 

“If your father is a professor of engineering and you’re doing a technical graphics project, you have a distinct advantage,” he said. 

“A blank page in an exam hall in a way is fairer than that.” 

Scrapping the Leaving Cert is “pie in the sky” thinking, especially if you just start accepting people into college courses without an exam, according to Ciara. 

“Will we just have 8,000 course places in medicine?” she asked. 

“Should we have a lottery, so it doesn't matter if you're suited to it, if you're academically very good? 

“We're not going to have endless college places and they have to be rationed in some way.” 

The Leaving Cert began last Wednesday with English Paper One and will conclude on June 25th with Japanese, Politics, Arabic, Religious Education and Applied Maths. 

Today, students will take Irish Paper Two and Biology.