Through the Looking Glass
Last year 60,000 students in Ireland started their Leaving Certificate year.
This is a strenuous year at the best of times as the Leaving Certificate is considered to be the gateway to their futures. It can determine their life careers as college placements depend on the certificate points.
Then along came the Virus.
The gubmint in its infinite wisdom decided that the exams couldn’t take place and that they would have to estimate what the student might have scored. Anyone with any intelligence greater than an amoeba could tell that this was going to be a disaster. 60,000 kids were left wondering.
So they wrote a programme that would do the estimates and ran it. The results were obviously different from previous years’ examples so they tweaked the programme. 60,000 kids were left wondering.
They finally decided that everything was grand and sent out the results to the students. Naturally several court cases commenced, brought by individuals and even whole schools, as the results were obviously wrong. But in the meantime colleges allocated course places on the basis of the results. Students paid their fees, sorted out accommodation and moved to the universities of their choice.
Then the gubmint discovered a major flaw in their precious programme. It had underestimated grades is around 6,500 cases, but of course none of the 60,000 knew if their marks were involved so all were left wondering.
Now we have a situation where courses have been allocated but there will probably be extra students entitled to that course. Other students will discover that they are now entitled to their first choice of subject instead of their second, and will find themselves having to decamp to a different city, having already paid fees and arranged digs. To make matters worse, the Powers that Be had discovered the problem before courses were allocated and could at least have delayed until the errors were rectified. To put it mildly there is utter chaos and crass incompetence.
In the meantime of course, 60,000 kids are left wondering. I wonder how many will have nervous breakdowns before this is over?
You honestly couldn’t make this up.
Modern education is becoming increasingly useless. Most graduates are illiterate and innumerate. a common joke is that companies today require a college degree as proof of a high school education. College itself has become more about indoctrination than education. Even engineering and the hard sciences are in the process of being taken over by the radical left which such policies as math is racist.
I wonder if a system of third party certifications will become the credential required for employment or if companies will being back the apprenticeship programs.
Perhaps we will become a world with a small group of mainly self taught producers supporting masses of consumers or are we already there?
How often do we hear of kids with good degrees stacking shelves in supermarkets? College is still perceived as the Holy Grail though.
I think that the system is totally buggered.
Apprenticeships were of two types.
A source of cheap labour until apprenticeship finished, then bye bye, and
The good one where a company honestly trained a youngster but then the same well trained craftsman was pinched by another company. That soon stopped, and any pseudo gubmint sponsored schemes were just treated as another way to reduce taxes or harvest subsidies.
Then jobs which in the past had people working their way up and gaining experience now require degrees. I am thinking of teaching, nursing, policing, services, humane resourses, management, just about anything in the public sector. And it does not matter what the degree is in, just network while you get it. So of course you go for the easiest degree. Then you step in half way up the management tree with no experience, underlings who think you are a wanker and superiors who think you are a jumped up oik. (If daddy, "uncle", very good friend, gender or ethnicity etc. can not get you in, then you are fecked – go to Asda) This is fine until things get serious and important stuff has to be done. Like order ppe, lots and lots of ventilators, or face a BLM crowd or bunch of mask protestors, purchase important software, sub-contract a tram building scheme, buy a ship, re-jig the electricity grid, maintain roads, – you know what I mean.
Then it is time to move on and with luck and your "experience" latch on to a higher branch in some other department, region, even country.
Meanwhile, the system is buggered.
I came across a weird one when I worked in RTE. The place was famous for promoting people beyond their level of competence. Seeing as I had worked there for well over thirty years I reckoned it was time I jumped on the gravy train. However I was told that yes, I had the years and yes, I had the skills but I couldn't go up a grade as I didn't have a degree [I had diplomas coming out my ears]. I was told categorically that I had to get a degree [in any subject] before progressing. I was tempted to go for a Degree in Finger Nail Polishing.
The government is accountable for the cock up, but someone in the department either wrote or commissioned the program and is responsible. Until we start rooting out ineptitude in the public sector, things will not get better, especially being ruled by primary parties that are indistinguishable in their policies.
They keep waffling about 60,000 lines of code as if that is supposed to be impressive. I know a little bit about programming and know full well that quantity doesn't mean quality. It's irrelevant. What is relevant is that the programme should have been rigorously tested both for its logic and output before it was run on live data.
"utter chaos and crass incompetence"
Just another day in Government…