Does the Leaving Cert Reward Memory Rather Than Intelligence? Episode 872

Fewer Than 100 Points to College Lecturer: Are We Lying to Teenagers About the Leaving Cert?

Niall talks to Cleo Knight, Ms Offaly 2026, who left school with fewer than 100 Leaving Certificate points believing she was not academic and that higher education was not for her. The only course she thought was available to her was jam-making, but Cleo had very different ambitions.

Today, she is a Business and Media lecturer, a model and the coordinator of an Honours Degree in Business and Psychology. Through Further Education, Cleo found an alternative route into college and proved that one set of exam results does not determine a person’s intelligence or future.

Cleo discusses her new “Further Than You Think” campaign and explains why students from very different backgrounds are being judged by the same points system.

Do Leaving Certificate points genuinely measure intelligence, hard work and ability, or simply how well someone performs in one set of examinations at 18? Is Ireland placing too much pressure on teenagers and making many of them feel like failures before their adult lives have even begun?