As a 6th year student, I knew that this year would be about as stressful as a year can get. I knew that I would struggle to keep up. I knew that I would have to sacrifice some of my mental wellbeing in order to achieve the results I hope for. However, never in a million years did I believe I would effectively be teaching myself from home for the last leg of my second-level education. Teachers have been working their very hardest to make the switch from classroom-based teaching to remote learning, and for that, I think I speak for most if not all of my peers when I say we appreciate your efforts more than you’ll ever know. Be that as it may, students are still majorly struggling.
Trying to learn from home is harder than we could have ever imagined. I am one of the lucky ones. I have use of a laptop, a functioning Wi-Fi connection, a relatively quiet household, yet still, I am finding it immensely difficult to retain any information. Even with the optimal conditions for remote learning, I am having a hard time. This begs the question of how are students with a busy household, no access to a computer, responsibilities to look after siblings, bad Wi-Fi connections or any other factor which could negatively impact their ability to learn, coping?
Just out of interest, I put up a poll on my Instagram stories recently asking friends and peers how they were finding online school. The two options I put down were ‘I’m finding it okay’ and ‘it’s not working for me’. After the 24 hours that the poll was active for, I received a result which shocked me. 87% of people had said that online school was not working for them. If that is the consensus from people around my area, I wonder if it really is as beneficial as the government seem to think it is?
The mental health of so many 6th year students has plummeted. I have seen my friends who only a few weeks ago were bright and ambitious go from working tirelessly towards their future and their exam results to having a complete and utter cease in motivation. We need help. 6th year is hard without a pandemic looming over student’s heads. We are worried. Worried for our friends. Worried for our families. Worried for our futures. As someone who has struggled with anxiety and panic attacks since the age of 7, I can tell you that I have never felt as anxious and lost as I have in these past weeks. Thankfully I have been lucky enough to have help from my doctors or therapists over the years which have left me able to cope much better, but the same can’t be said for someone who this level of anxiety and stress is new to. I worry for the generation of young adults who are about to be thrust into the adult world, feeling as though we have been cast aside with no help or ways to cope.
Despite being 17/18 years old, we are not as naïve as so many perceive us to be. We understand that there is no perfect solution and that exams aren’t on the top of the agenda. However, it doesn’t take away from how many of us are incomprehensibly struggling. This is a period where everything we know is in disarray. Everything we have become accustomed to has been flipped upside-down. The coping mechanisms which we have relied on throughout the whole year (walks with friends, seeing family, school councillors etc) have been ripped away at a time when we need them most. We are trying to adjust to this new isolated life, whilst also trying to prepare for the most important exams we will ever face, in a way which we have never experienced before. We know that everyone is in the same boat. We know that there’s nothing we can do to help it. We know that we are not the government’s priorities right now. However, telling students who have been conditioned for the guts of 14 years to think that the Leaving Cert is the be-all and end-all, that its what everything is building up to, to just get on with it, isn’t helping. We’re trying our best, and so many of us are finding it hard to cope, including myself.
All that being said, I also understand that there aren’t many options. I know that there has been a petition which has gained a lot of traction in recent weeks calling for the government to abandon the exams in favour of predicted grades, I don’t agree with this for many reasons. Ireland doesn’t have a schooling system which is compatible with predictive grading. We have no across the board standardised tests to pull results from, teacher bias, mocks being leaked and numerous other reasons, some of which are outlined in a greatly informative Reddit post written by (u/annedlaney).
We have been told countless times that the leaving cert is what matters. That everything we do is geared towards those exams in June. As a result of our exam-focused school system, thousands of student’s results would be completely inaccurate with the predicted grading technique. Class tests are meaningless in our minds, and therefore we don’t pay much heed to them, instead, disregarding their marks and focusing solely on the Leaving Cert.
My analogy is this; if you were given 10 canvases and told that you must paint all 10 of them, but only your 10thcanvas will be sold, for whatever the buyer thinks it will be worth, of course, you would put your full attention onto the canvas which has been marketed to you as the thing in which you will be judged on. Neglecting the other 9 and not putting nearly as much effort in, in favour of doing your best work on the 10th painting. You can’t gear up to a final exam only to be told that the preparation will be your final result.
No solution is perfect. Predictive grades aren’t a feasible option, postponing exams is sending students into disarray and repeating the year would mean no first-year college entries, in turn losing the government a considerable amount of money. I believe that the only 2 options worth considering are postponement and repeating the year. In my opinion student’s mental wellbeing should take precedence over the economy. I would be in favour of repeating the year, as would so many of my friends. We have missed huge chunks of course content and are finding it next to impossible to be productive during this time of uncertainty. Repeating the year would afford us the opportunity to essentially re-do our final year. The final year in which means so much to so many of us. To not only put a stop to this years 65,000 6th year student’s mental health deteriorating, but to give them the opportunity to a fair leaving cert. To allow them the space to grieve for lost family members, to show our countries young adults that they deserve to be given an equal and fair opportunity, despite how entirely unfair that the coronavirus has been to our country.
Repeating the year would not only be a fairer option for our grades but also for the closure it would bring to our secondary school experience. We wouldn’t miss out on all those things which make 6th year bearable, graduation, the debs, our final sports days, seeing our friends through all the exam stress. We would be afforded the Leaving Cert experience we have envisioned for so many years.
Please don’t read that statement as me being tone-deaf and naïve, I understand that those things seem completely arbitrary and trivial in times like these. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that thousands of us have had the final leg of school ripped away from us, and the government had the power to not only give us a shot at a fair Leaving Cert, but they can also give us the chance to have our final school memories be untainted from this deadly, horrific virus.
In conclusion, nobody has a perfect solution. Every single student has their own opinion on how this situation should be handled, and every opinion is valid and should be considered. We want to achieve the results we know we can, but with the situation at hand and online school failing so many of us it’s seeming less and less attainable. The mental health of this country’s students has been grossly neglected. We are amid the most stressful days of our lives and the government has hung us out to dry with an abhorrent lack of clarity and resources to ensure our mental wellbeing. I really hope that any student who is in a bad place reaches out, that they know they are not alone in this. Although the Government has been little to no help in providing us with resources about our mental health, Ireland has some amazing resources which are helping so many of us in this trying time. Pieta House, Samaritans, Spun-Out and Childline are just some of the organisations which are being used by students all over the country. I really hope that in the coming weeks we are afforded more clarity to help put our minds at ease. We are the future generation, please don’t disregard us throughout this crisis.
Help information
If you need help please talk to friends, family, a GP, therapist or one of the free confidential helpline services. For a full list of national mental health services see yourmentalhealth.ie.
- Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
- Pieta House National Suicide Helpline 1800 247 247 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement) or text HELP to 51444 (standard message rates apply)
- Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
If living in Ireland you can find accredited therapists in your area here:
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