Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The leaving certificate should be scrapped. It was never a fair exam. It always discriminated against those with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas and all of that has been compounded and made worse in the teeth of a pandemic. Will the Government take the bold step now, which could get us out of this mess, and say that everybody should be able to study the higher or further education course or apprenticeship of their choice? Imagine that. Imagine what it would be like if people got to study what they wanted to study at third level. It would make even more sense given the chronic shortage of psychologists, doctors, nurses, construction workers and so on. You name it, we have skills shortages and yet we want to maintain a stressful, gate-keeping exercise which makes it more difficult for our young people to advance.

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