Leaving Cert

Ah the leaving cert results come out again and the one of two debates begin. The debate is either Girls are doing better then guys or the sciences are not being picked. Well this years debate is the later. Before I go into this I would like to add one thing that not a lot of people know. If you get an E in an honors level subject that is a course requirement to pass. i.e. English (in my case a few years back) then if you get more then 3 chaw in honour level subjects NUI collages will accept that as a compensation for the fail. So if you failed English or maths but got more then 3 honours chaw you can still go to NUI Galway UCC Nui Maynoth and possible UCD(not sure if it is NUI). where is an exert from the NUI Galway Prospectus page 28

One Grade E on Higher course at Leaving Certificate will be accepted if candidates have amongst their other subjects three Grade C3 awards on Higher course papers, or at least one Grade B3 and one Grade C3 on Higher course at Leaving Certificate or the equivalent grades at the Matriculation examination (up to and including 1992), or on the joint results of both examinations

anyway back to me point. The required spend is in the region of €66million a year. Which with a projected budgetsurpluss of 13.6billion between now and 2010 is it really that much to ask for.