Reaction to 2026 Leaving Certificate Religious Education (Higher Level) by Paul McAndrew, Religious Education teacher at The Institute of Education.
- A positive mixture of predicted topics and pleasant surprises.
Section A: The Search for Meaning and Values’ first question was dominated by Aristotle’s philosophy. Students will have anticipated this as Socrates and Plato took this role in previous years. The questions were pleasantly straightforward, asking the students to either profile his impact upon the discipline or how his ideas could be applied to a contemporary person in search of meaning. There were no tricks or twists to these questions as the examiner clearly wants students to really show their knowledge from the off. Question 2 took a similar approach with its second part asking about the arguments of Anselm and Aquinas. As a result, this philosophical section invited the students to explore the ideas more directly and efficiently without having to decipher the questions or jump through hoops.
Unit Two has three sections, of which students need do two. The first, Section B, on Christianity will be welcomed by students as anticipated topics appeared. Students were asked about the threat that Jesus’ teaching posed to authorities, both Jewish and Roman in Palestine. The question on Christology hadn’t appeared since 2019, so again was anticipated. The third part’s emphasis on “early Christian communities” might have caught some out as the locations were very specific: Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica. Section C on World Religions was also very student friendly. The first question was a pleasant surprise as a question on origins appeared in 2024 and would usually be on hiatus for another year or two. This is a student favourite, so many will be happy to with its early return. The following questions were equally in keeping with expectations and unburdened by awkward restrictions in their demands. Section D on Moral Decision-Making was nice but will have challenged students to cover the entire course. Those hoping to hedge their bets might have struggled but the span of material presented in the questions was very fair in reflecting the diversity of the topic.
Unit 3 contains four sections and student choice will be dictated by both their interest and their teacher’s selections. Section E on Religion and Gender is a short topic but a crowd favourite. The phrasing of the opening question might catch out one or two, but with a little thought would be very approachable. The question on the role of women in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism (do two) was wonderfully straightforward, allowing the student to shine on the page. Section G on Worship, Prayer and Ritual followed suit, yet the middle question combined elements from across the course as a whole. Much like in Section D, the exam challenged those who tried to adopt a myopic approach to studying the topic.
Overall, even when trickier sections emerged students had a great selection of viable choices to ensure that they could fairly reflect their grasp of the subject.