My son still hasn’t selected his CAO courses

My son sits the Leaving Cert soon, but is struggling to get motivated and can’t wait to finish school. When I asked him the other day what he had listed on his CAO form, he said he still hadn’t selected anything. I’m worried and not sure how to motivate him to plan for his future.

Your son’s perspective on life is not all that unusual. In the coming weeks he is facing the first public exams he has ever taken due to the cancellation of the Junior Certificate in 2021. That may be as much as he is capable of coping with for the time being.

He will have plenty of time after he finishes his final written paper to submit a list of CAO courses by the July 1st deadline. Leave any discussion on those options until he finishes his exams.

If at that stage he is still resisting applying for specific courses, I would not pressurise him. He is in the fortunate situation that his grades will be adjusted upwards to match the inflated grades secured by Leaving Certificate students from 2020…