# Government gives everyone 100% in their orals



## Duke of Marmalade (19 Mar 2020)

Purple said:


> Leaving cert oral exams cancelled and students given full marks.
> I'm seeing if it's too late to re-sit my Irish and French!


It will be interesting to see if that translates as higher grades or will there be a rescaling to get more or less the same percentage outcomes as normal.


----------



## Thirsty (19 Mar 2020)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> It will be interesting to see if that translates as higher grades or will there be a rescaling to get more or less the same percentage outcomes as normal.


Grades will certainly be higher since everyone is getting the max mark available. But the CAO points will go up as well.


----------



## Purple (19 Mar 2020)

Duke of Marmalade said:


> It will be interesting to see if that translates as higher grades or will there be a rescaling to get more or less the same percentage outcomes as normal.


That was my problem; none of it translated for me.

im still struggling with English!


----------



## Brendan Burgess (19 Mar 2020)

The government announcement made little sense to me.

Why did they not just exclude the orals and mark people as normal on the rest of the exam? 

The current proposal favours those doing languages over non-language subjects. 

It will be much easier to get top grades in the languages. 



Brendan


----------



## Duke of Marmalade (19 Mar 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> The government announcement made little sense to me.
> 
> Why did they not just exclude the orals and mark people as normal on the rest of the exam?
> 
> ...


I agree.  It would have been so much more logical to say orals are being ignored and all the marks will be given for the written.


----------



## mathepac (20 Mar 2020)

Written, as in germ-carrying biro and germ-carrying paper? Why not electronically via keyboard and electronically secured soft-copy?  Everyone brings thir own keyboard and mouse to the exam hall and plugs into the USB port on the PC/Mac/Unix box. Or ifthey standardised the keyboatds and mice, every student just brings their own pre-sanitised membranes.

Oral exams conducted via video-link / CCTV.

But hey what do I know, I ain't the man, man


----------



## llgon (20 Mar 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> The current proposal favours those doing languages over non-language subjects.
> 
> It will be much easier to get top grades in the languages.




Fully agree with this. Some students may have 4 or 5 subjects between languages, home economics, music etc in which they have achieved 100% already for a substantial portion. On the other hand many students may only have one or none of these subjects and get no hand up. And they have to compete with the others.  Completely unfair and very disheartening I'd imagine.


----------



## cbreeze (21 Mar 2020)

I listened to Liveline yesterday.  The impression conveyed was that some parents who had spent money for their children to gain advantage over others was going to be wasted.  As an earlier poster said, why not eliminate the orals altogether.


----------



## SPC100 (21 Mar 2020)

100% for everyone is unfair and demotivating for dilligent students who had done lots of their own work and prep.

They expected a high mark vs others which would have increased their chance of getting their college course of choice.


----------



## Thirsty (21 Mar 2020)

100% or 0% its the same difference in the end. The differentiator now will be the final exam; and we can only hope that they are not cancelled also.


----------



## seamus m (21 Mar 2020)

start school again next sept and Use the schools as contact tracing centers with  the teachers local knowledge .In Singapore they hired 10000 people for this .One way or other it will end up in court becaus e my johnnie will have been discriminated against.


----------



## PaddyBloggit (21 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> with the teachers local knowledge



Lots of teachers now commute to the schools they work in and haven't a notion of local knowledge ... me included.

We are a 12 teacher school and not one of us is local to the area.

And just before anyone says anything.... I've never worked as hard on providing education to the pupils I teach...

I've set up a dedicated website for them and they are practically getting one-to-one tutoring.

And I was up at 6.00 a.m. this morning revamping site for Monday. I'll spend tomorrow working on content matter.


----------



## seamus m (21 Mar 2020)

A lot of teachers would know local areas and parents ,would be involved with local community groups and clubs etc .The schools are ideal local centers with space for utilising as trace centers.How many students do you think are sitting home and taking study seriously 50 per cent of leaving? 20 per cent the rest?.Do you honestly think you will have state exams in june?that will stand up?you can still remote teach from school if Ur quiet..I know my sisters house was never as clean and she thinks she's on her school holidays.


----------



## Leo (23 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> A lot of teachers would know local areas and parents ,would be involved with local community groups and clubs etc .The schools are ideal local centers with space for utilising as trace centers.



I very much doubt many of them are at all suitable. The system is already over-subscribed with volunteers who have much of the training and experience required to perform this work. Suggesting teachers should do this makes no sense whatsoever.


----------



## seamus m (23 Mar 2020)

[QUOTE="Leo, post: 16. Who are all these qualified trained people for this job .I know of 2 healthcare workers redeployed for this who asked to be redeployed and this is what they are trained up for and now doing.I also know some teachers who have volunteered and can't believe they haven't been redeployed.The schools are there and the teachers are there .Why pay someone else it's not rocket science


----------



## Leo (23 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> [QUOTE="Leo, post: 16. Who are all these qualified trained people for this job .I know of 2 healthcare workers redeployed for this who asked to be redeployed and this is what they are trained up for and now doing.I also know some teachers who have volunteered and can't believe they haven't been redeployed.The schools are there and the teachers are there .Why pay someone else it's not rocket science



Over 60k people with health care qualifications and experience have volunteered via the HSE system. Why would adding teachers with no training or experience be a good thing? If anything, it would detract from efforts as they would consume more resources that could be better applied elsewhere while getting up to speed.


----------



## seamus m (23 Mar 2020)

Tha 60000 are not healthcare qualified with experience .The schools are good hubs most of the teachers are involved in localities and know the people .They already have a certain database of contacts and are easily mobilised .Yes they will need certain guidence. There are little rules only pass on information as quick as possible .Sooner they start the better they would be


----------



## llgon (23 Mar 2020)

It is of no benefit to 'know the people' or have local knowledge when doing contact tracing. It's not like researching someone's family tree.


----------



## Leo (23 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> The schools are good hubs



They're not, they don't have the infrastructure required. 



seamus m said:


> There are little rules only pass on information as quick as possible .



Really??


----------



## seamus m (23 Mar 2020)

You would hope it will be localised in France you have to be within 2miles of your residence .I believe this will come here, it's nothing to do with family tree it's about the people in the locality.


----------



## Sunny (23 Mar 2020)

As far as I know, librarians as well as other public service workers with certain skills have been drafted in to do contact tracing. I don't think it is a matter at this stage of a shortage of people. From my day to day experience, many teachers are putting significant time into still teaching where at all possible. I know people want to help but the best thing people can do is adhere to the advice given. If they need more people to help, there are plenty of people there.


----------



## seamus m (23 Mar 2020)

60000 qualified healthcare workers with experience in tracing .Really?


----------



## Leo (23 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> it's nothing to do with family tree it's about the people in the locality.



What? Not a single person in the country has traveled outside their locality over the last month???



seamus m said:


> 60000 qualified healthcare workers with experience in tracing .Really?



Who said they had experience contact tracing? Those assigned to contact tracing will have training/ knowledge that will allow them to make the necessary calls on the information gathered. Lots of people with no idea what might be relevant and cause further confusion is not what is needed right now.


----------



## Sunny (23 Mar 2020)

seamus m said:


> 60000 qualified healthcare workers with experience in tracing .Really?



The number of people with actual experience of contact tracing before this is miniscule. They have not said there is a shortage of people for contact tracing. They have redeployed as necessary. You seem to creating solutions to problems that aren't there at the moment. Just flooding a system with people is not a solution no matter how well meaning. It is just risking chaos.


----------



## Leo (23 Mar 2020)

Sunny said:


> I don't think it is a matter at this stage of a shortage of people.



They have capacity assigned to interview up to 6000 a week, so they've more than enough for now. 



Sunny said:


> From my day to day experience, many teachers are putting significant time into still teaching where at all possible.



Same here, I've only heard of one complaint where the local school wasn't heavily involved, but that was younger primary school children.


----------

