"From the moment a child enters the education system, they are affected by two conflicting pressures, " said Sean Cottrell, director of the Irish Primary Principals' Network.

"There is the downward force from third level and the Leaving Cert and the pressure to achieve academically. Then there is the upward force of primary school philosophy, which is all about child development, such as speech and language skills. From day one, a child is being constantly monitored and assessed. And in 6th class, these two forces clash and a child is caught in the middle."

PLACEMENT PRESSURE

With more and more families opting to send their children to private schools . . . both at primary and secondary level . . . and with the recent publication of league tables rating secondary schools around the country, there is now huge pressure on parents to ensure that their offspring gain entry into the top educational establishments.

Inevitably, this sense of urgency is transferred to children, said Cottrell.

"When a child is being driven half-way across the city to a school, he knows there's a reason for it, " he said. "Children are much more aware of the expectation of academic success now than they were 10 years ago. I do think that this is having an impact on childhood, that it is being forced backwards."

The expectation of excellence is most apparent in the demotion of the word 'average', said Cottrell. "Now, everyone wants their child to excel, " he said. "All parents want, or even expect, their children to be 'above average'. They actually get worried when they hear that their child is average, like that has negative connotations. Everyone seems to have forgotten that 'average' means 'normal', and most children are normal, and that is a very fine thing."

Following the often difficult transfer into the secondary system, children are forced into a pressure cooker of exam preparation. As the points average continues to rise yearon-year, young adolescents often find themselves expected to achieve far beyond their own abilities. For many, it proves much too much.

According to child psychiatrist Dr Keith Holmes, one Dublin psychiatric unit sees "one or two" students each year who are suffering from depression as a result of exam pressure. "It would be something we would see every year, " he said. "And it's usually Leaving Cert students who become over-stressed."

In the UK, prescriptions for anti-depressants have almost tripled in the last decade, with 140,000 students now turning to drugs to combat stress. No corresponding figures are yet available in Ireland, but anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been a considerable rise in students requiring medication to deal with school pressure.

'NO-SUICIDE' CONTRACTS

Such is the concern over the effect of exams on a child's mental health that Dr Arthur Cassidy, an adolescent social psychologist in Northern Ireland, has suggested that principals North and South of the border should introduce a "nosuicide contract" with students.

"The contract would be signed by the student, the principal, family members and another authority figure, like a priest, " said Cassidy. "The child agrees in the contract that if they are feeling suicidal they will contact one of those people. This type of thing has worked very well in North America."