Wednesday 26 August 2009

GET THE POINT NOT THE POINTS

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) are under increasing pressure to bring about the introduction of aptitude tests for more third level courses. This aptitude test is already in play for entry into medecine but now the Hea want to create a similar arrangement for pharmacy, veterinary medecine, law and even teaching. This means that students who recieved the points necessary for the above courses could lose out on their placement if they score badly on the aptitude test. Soccer moms nation wide are up in arms that their precious, brow beaten and soul crushed youngsters wont be able to enter the pharmaceutical profession after all their hard work starving their children of fun, fresh air and friends.

Tony Donoghue head of education with IBEC described the leaving cert as having important strenghts but that examination papers tended to be predictable and the unexpected was never welcome. So, if the aptitude test idea is thrown out whats not to say that the med heads wont try and abolish their test....imagine this scene....after 2 years of being locked in the basement with only his biology books for company young joe gets 600 points in his leaving cert and enters the miraculous and now aptitude free world of medecine....couple of years down the line, everything is going swimmingly- an apendectomy here, a broken arm there- perfect. Until one day (enter man with unexplainable symptoms) Dr. Joe doesnt have a bulls notion what to do and decides to grunt meaningfully whilst perusing charts and thinking this wouldnt happen in the leaving cert. Who would you prefer to be treated by - a Dr. Joe like man who can spiel off the periodic table to you as you rasp your last breath or a Dr. Cox like progeny who can sniff out symptoms like a stalker sniffs out knicker drawers. The choice is yours.

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