[TAG] Issue #106

[Thomas Adam]

On Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 02:16:02AM +0100, Jimmy O'Regan wrote:

> Sounds like the Junior Cert here, except Irish is also a mandatory 
> subject (though I took 6 "optional" subjects instead of 5). We also had 

Oh, they were mandatory for us. I meant "optional" in the sense that we had a
choice.

> weekly religion classes, and another weekly subject that was called 
> "Pastoral Care", "Civics", or "Social Studies" depending on the teacher 
> (though it was basically a free period, or the time when homework was done).

Ah yes... "PSE" (Personal and Social Education). Everything from how to wash
to having sex. Although the teacher I had for that was a complete bastard and
so there was no escaping from doing the set lesson.

> That's kind of like the Leaving Cert, except (as the name suggests) most 
> people aren't allowed to leave school before they sit it. (It's more of 
> a taboo than law, but I only know 3 people who left school without it).

It's not compulsory that one takes or actually decides to pass any GCSEs,
either. If that's what you want then you'll end up cleaning the streets for
the rest of your life. OTOH, there is also a link between lack of GCSEs and
localised crime in certain locales. Although I make no further comment there.

> There's the difference. You can't get into any college here without the 
> Leaving Cert.

You'd be hard-pushed to do the same here, although many colleges will offer
GCSE resit courses, if one does not want to go back the school they were
initially at.

> I don't think colleges or universities have entrance requirements here - 
> courses have, but not the college itself (though this might not be true 
> for colleges that don't receive government funding).

No no -- I meant that only from the viewpoint of a course, not a University
per se. (You'd never go to University for anything other than a degree, or
post-graduate course such as a PhD).

> >There used to be a grant system whereby money was literally given to you, 
> >free
> >of charge. Hmm, I wonder why this stopped. :)
> 
> I remember when that happened - it was just after Blair came into power 
> wasn't it? I remember there being a huge sense of betrayal attached to 
> it, so it must have been :)

Indeed. :|

It's interesting, Jimmy. I'd never really considered Ireland would have a
different education system to England. Scotland, however.....

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
$ source ~/.bash_history