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Ireland's big school secret: how a year off-curriculum changes teenage lives

(www.theguardian.com)
204 points joveian | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 17:36 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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anotherhue ◴[16 Oct 24 18:50 UTC] No.41862429[source]▶
20 years ago it was considered a 'doss year' (waste/screw-around etc.), and the general perception was that it was for those that require a little more time in the oven developmentally before proceeding to the next stage. I was a child then so I don't know if that was true, but certainly the majority of people who took it were not academically inclined.
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1. Macha ◴[16 Oct 24 20:54 UTC] No.41863766[source]▶
It was both extremes when I did it 15 years ago. Those who needed it just to catch up on what they were supposed to have learned in junior cycle and those who wanted a bunch of extra curriculars for whatever reason. Note that admission to college/university in Ireland is not a motivator for extra curriculars - for school leavers the only things that matter are your overall grades, and for some courses, grades in specific subjects. (For foreign students, over 25s, those with special needs etc. there's a 10% or so allocation for an alternative process which is more subjective application based. But the 90% go through the purely grades based CAO)

Think it varies a lot school to school and sometimes even year to year.