I was in the local library this morning and the place was buzzing with pre leaving cert study groups. What struck me was that the groups were exclusively female. Are girls taking these exams more seriously than the boys?
Year after year girls outperform boys in the results. Census figures show that more girls reach the leaving cert than boys, at 18 years of age 75 per cent of females and only 60% of males are in full time education. Also figures show that girls are more inclined to take the higher grade papers and still outperform their male counterparts.
All of this might point to the rat race of points system not suiting boys, that grinds play a major role in the top marks and that xbox and playstation are not of the curriculum yet. In my day it was the common refrain that I would not be sitting a paper in the leaving cert on pirate radio.
Next time you need a tradesman/woman, think of the points system, the lack of apprenticeships and the narrow focus of our ‘excellent’ education system, which at the moment is failing to place the high achieving girls on IT courses.
After the leaving cert I trained in FÁS Tallaght the best career move I ever made, if I ever need to switch jobs I can fall back on the 9 months training and 8 years experience I have in concrete and steel detailing.