Ms Annie Sheppard:

The CAO system and the points race cause massive stress as our students enter senior cycle. Our transition year students will select their senior cycle subjects in January and, at the moment, many are asking teachers for their advice on the various subjects. Unfortunately, students tend to focus on the potential points that a subject might offer as opposed to what they will actually learn should they choose that subject. Some subjects are seeing a direct negative impact on the number of students opting to study them at senior level. Modern foreign languages, MFL, are perceived as being difficult and, as a result, many students are opting to study them at ordinary level or outside of school just in case they are needed for matriculation purposes. Using MFL subjects as an example, both short-term and long-term effects of these choices are going to start becoming evident. Schools are increasingly having issues recruiting MFL teachers with some schools even removing some languages from their subject offering as they have been unable to find suitably qualified teachers. If students are not studying languages, where will the next generation of interpreters, translators and so on come from? The points race demands that students make strategic decisions about the subjects they choose; whether a student enjoys a subject is irrelevant.