The students who sat the Leaving Cert in 50°C desert heat

Many of this year’s Leaving Cert students are preparing to take up their third level courses.

Some are holding out for third or fourth round offers, others are going back to the drawing board in terms of looking at alternative career paths. 

Most are moving into their accommodation this week and preparing to take the first steps of their third level journey, be it in Ireland or further afield. 

But there is one group of Leaving Cert 2022 students that are looking at things from a somewhat different point of view.

Since 1997, a secondary school in Libya has offered the Leaving Cert curriculum to its students. The International School of the Martyrs (ISM), in Tripoli has been approved as an official Leaving Certificate examination centre, and the number of students sitting the Irish exams annually is around 60.

So how and why did students in this distant school come to be sitting the same exams as our own young people, albeit in 50°C desert heat?

The answer lies in large part in Libya’s oil business, and the large expatriate community that this attracts. 

Libyan schools traditionally offer much the same range of core subjects as Ireland and other most developed countries. However, the Libyan curriculum also includes military training and weapons instruction.

On top of that, Colonel Gadafy’s Green Book which consists of essays on his ‘third way’ alternative to capitalism and socialism is also required study. 

Students at the ISM, which opened its doors on a five-acre campus in the Hay Andulus suburb of Tripoli in 1958, are the children of expatriates from more than 50 countries. Many of their parents work for the oil companies  or are members of the diplomatic community. 

Students receive their entire Primary and Secondary education on the campus, with enrolment open to four-year-olds and older. 

It is expected that most, or all of them will go on to complete their third level education outside the country, and so their education has a significantly more international flavour than their Libyan counterparts.

It was during the early 1990s that the school’s Principal at the time, Irishman Brendan Coffey, encouraged the school to consider the Leaving Cert for its senior students. 

After looking at a number of options, including state examinations from the UK, Canada and the USA, the school adopted the Leaving Cert curriculum. 

The first cohort began studying in 1995, and the inaugural sitting of the Leaving Certificate in Libya took place in 1997. It remains the only approved Leaving Cert examination centre outside the state, though the actual examinations take place in Malta now due to ongoing unrest in Libya.

The students in Libya are as well versed as our Irish-based students in the works of Heaney, Yeats and Kinsella. 

They could give many Irish people a run for their money with their knowledge of our country’s geology and geography.

However, while rules such as tuition hours and teaching qualifications must be adhered to, there are some differences. Most significant is that students don’t have to study the Irish language. Instead, they can opt to study Arabic, an entry requirement for university in Libya.

They also have the option of studying a module in African history instead of Irish history. But everything else is the same. 

Current Principal, Canadian Donna McPhee was more than happy to continue with the Irish Leaving Cert when she took over the role from Mr Coffey on his return to Ireland. 

She is full of praise for the Irish system which she says has stayed away from the ‘dumbing down’ trend that other countries are adopting. 

Ms McPhee   believes that the rigorous, academic Irish education system helps strong students to achieve their potential. 

Students in Tripoli pay the same examination fees as those in Ireland, and are subject to exactly the same exam conditions at exactly the same time as the Irish Leaving Cert candidates. 

Their examination scripts are sent to the State Examinations Centre in Athlone and are marked under the same conditions as Irish papers. 

Holding a  Leaving Cert sets these students up to apply for universities around the world with an internationally recognised and highly regarded second level qualification. 

And inevitably, most years, a small number secure places at Irish universities alongside around  60,000 students who sat the Leaving Cert in schools and examination centres up and down Ireland.