Fionn
03-31-2001, 10:01 AM
I've just finished reading Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy. All three books are great and I recommend them to anyone looking for a good read, but they left me with a few questions about the Irish educational system. Several characters mention getting honors in their Inter, which I assumed must be an abbreviation of something. A teenaged character is studying for the Leaving Certificate, while a middle aged woman is studying for it by taking night classes. What are these tests, and how do they fit into the general structure of education? I've run across the phrase "decided to leave school" so it seems as though people are free to decide how long they continue in school after a certain point.
For contrast, US kids enter high school around fourteen and graduate four years later, at around eighteen. It's legal to drop out at about sixteen, but you don't get any kind of certificate if you leave then. You get a high school diploma when you graduate and some states, like Texas, have standardized tests that you must pass before you graduate.
For contrast, US kids enter high school around fourteen and graduate four years later, at around eighteen. It's legal to drop out at about sixteen, but you don't get any kind of certificate if you leave then. You get a high school diploma when you graduate and some states, like Texas, have standardized tests that you must pass before you graduate.