The Leaving Cert should be abolished because of its “huge class bias” and the stress it causes teenagers, People Before Profit has said. 

The party has previously tabled a Dáil motion on the issue and as young people up and down the country sit their exams, the party has returned to the issue. 

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, TD Paul Murphy said the current system undermines meritocracy. 

“There’s two big, big problems,” he said. 

“One is the extreme stress that most young people go through as a result of it. 

“My heart goes out to all those who are sitting it at the moment - huge pressure on young people, causes significant mental health issues and so on. 

“The second issue is the class issue; if you go to a school in an affluent area, you are 10 times more likely to get high points in your Leaving Cert than if you go to a school in a disadvantaged area. 

“If you go to a school in Dublin 6, you’re 99% going to third level education. 

“If you go to school in Dublin 10, it’s 12%.

“Nobody can say that is because kids in affluent are smarter, kids in Dublin 6 are smarter - they’re not smarter.” 

Pupils at Beneavin De La Salle College, Finglas, await the start of their exams. Picture date: Wednesday June 9, 2021.

Deputy Murphy said the Leaving Cert is the “most stressful thing you do in your entire life” but has no bearing on what real life is like. 

Instead, he wants the current system replaced with one of general entry in which anyone who wants to go to third level education is guaranteed a place. 

“In many European countries, effectively there are no barriers to entry in third level education,” he said. 

“In some you have to get a basic diploma - as in you finished secondary school - then you get in.

“A report back in 2001 by the Department of Education… basically proposed that you would have an omnibus entry.

“Let’s say you intend to become a doctor, you would go in and do a first year of science and at the end of that, you would have an exam [about] things that actually relate to becoming a doctor and the people who do the best get through and go on to medicine.” 

Students sitting their exams. Credit: AG News/Alamy Live News

Deputy Murphy said this will help rectify the classist nature of the education system. 

“Young people who may want to go to university aren’t able to do it,” he said. 

“And also, it means as a society we’re losing out; there’s loads of potential doctors, scientists, potential lecturers, potential whatever, who don’t get a chance.” 

Today, Leaving Cert students sit Biology and Irish Paper One.

Main image: Leaving Cert students. Picture by: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie