Mature students’ delight at results

SHAWNA Johnson is one mother who appreciated first-hand the pressures her daughter, Tara, experienced sitting the Leaving Certificate last June. The Kilrush woman could relate to her daughter simply because she too was sitting the exam, more than 20 years after leaving school.

Shawna sat English, history and maths papers as part of the Leaving Cert programme at the Adult Education Centre on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush. The 11 students who received their results on Wednesday were the first batch of adults to sit the exam in the Kilrush centre.

“I was absolutely delighted with how I got on. I got two A1s and a B3. I couldn’t have asked for more,” Shawna told The Clare Champion. Her A1s were in maths and history.

“I didn’t think I’d failed the history but I thought I’d only scraped a pass. I didn’t think that I’d done well in it at all,” the former Convent of Mercy Kilrush student added.

Having left school in 1988, prior to sitting that year’s State exams, Shawna had long hankered for another shot at sitting the Leaving Cert.

“It was always something I wanted to do and last year was the first year they did it in Kilrush. The timetable suited me. It was like somebody wrote it for me. It worked around work and everything. I had no excuse not to do it, although retaining the information was harder and to find the time to study between a job and kids was hard,” she said.

Mother and daughter studied together having commandeered the dining room. “We didn’t eat on our dining room table from Christmas until the end of June. It was covered in books. Tara got the points she needed and she’s just delighted. We’d a great day,” Shawna said.

It might have been a great day but it was a working day for Shawna at the Brothers of Charity, once she got her hands on her results.

“I went and got my results and went straight to work. That’s where I went,” she laughed.
Now that she has developed a taste for studying, Shawna is weighing up the possibility of sitting more exams in 2013.

“If we can get enough people this year, I’ll go and do geography. We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” she said.

Meanwhile, 63-year-old Peggy Griffin, who lives in Carnanes, Kilrush, studied history, maths and English.

“I got an A1 in history and maths and a B3 in English. Time caught me in English. I went on from one question and said I’d gO back but I didn’t get back. I left school in Thurles when I was 14 years of age and I would have left totally against the wishes of my parents. They did everything to try and keep me going,” Peggy revealed.

Forty-nine years later, Peggy relented and did what her parents wanted her to do nearly half a century ago.

“I lost my job about three years ago so I went and did a VTOS course for two years. I loved the studying and the learning so when I saw that the Leaving Cert was available, that’s what really prompted me to go back,” she explained.

Shawna Johnson went to work after getting her results, while Peggy went for lunch. Neither exactly went wild.

“I don’t drink alcohol but some of us have been out to lunch together. We’d a lovely lunch. But we’ll meet up again and go out. We’re not finished yet. Maybe not today or tomorrow but pretty soon we’ll meet again,” Peggy said.

Now that she has the Leaving Cert behind her, Peggy is planning to upgrade and enrol at UCC.
“I’m going to UCC to study Art History,” she confirmed, noting that her husband, Joseph, and family had provided huge support following her return to education.

An information evening on further adult education opportunities in Kilrush will be held at 7pm on September 5 at the adult education centre on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush.