I asked the Minister for Education to-day whether he had reconsidered the position with regard to boys who had lost second-class scholarships, or who had received second-class scholarships instead of first-class scholarships, by reason of the change that took place in the marking of the Greek examination papers subsequent to the issue of the provisional lists of marks to the managers of the various schools. The Minister said that he did not consider that an injustice had been done, that he did not consider that the Greek examiner had been over-ruled in his original judgement, that he was not prepared to say how many boys were affected, and that he was not prepared to consider any question of compensation. I told the Minister that, inevitably, the position would disclose itself, and that, inevitably, we would see that a certain number of boys, whose marks on the original markings entitled them to first-class scholarships, had been reduced to second-class scholarships and that a number of boys, whose marks on the original markings entitled them to second-class scholarships, would be reduced to getting no scholarship at all.
The Minister to-day provided lists of the boys who had qualified for scholarships, with certain references to these, and an examination of these lists discloses that one of the effects of the raising of the Greek marks by 10 per cent. is that four boys: one in the Patrician Brothers, Ballyfin, Mountrath; one in Coláiste Muire na mBráthar, Cearnóg Parnell, Dublin, and two in Sgoil na mBráthar, O'Sullivan's Quay, Cork, were removed from their positions on the list of first-class scholarships, and brought down to the second class. These boys will now receive scholarships of the value of £20 each instead of scholarships of the value of £40 each. We do not know what the position is in relation to boys who would have been entitled, on the original markings, to be on the second-class scholarship list, because they are completely gone off the list, and, until the schools themselves, to which these boys are attached, make a careful examination of the lists, that position will not disclose itself, but at any rate there are four boys who, on the original marking of the Greek examiners, would have been entitled to £40 each, who are only getting £20 each. The sum involved to the State there is £80, and probably another £50 would be involved at the other end of the scale in order to compensate the boys who, as a result of the markings, whatever be the circumstances in which they actually took place, have lost scholarships as a result of the remarking of the Greek paper.
Now, it is an interesting thing that, whereas the Minister tells us that out of 4,400 boys sitting for the Intermediate Certificate Examination this year, 864 took Greek, of the 36 first-class scholarships 21 were persons who sat for Greek, and of the 36 second-class scholarships 25 sat for Greek. So that, out of a total of 72 scholarships, divided among 4,400 boys, 46 of the people who got these scholarships took Greek, and I think that only 864 boys sat for Greek. The number of first-class scholarships, with Greek attaching, would not have been reduced by four. Probably, the number of second-class scholarships, with Greek attaching, would not have been reduced at all, but there would have been a change, between second-class scholarships and non-scholarships, of four or five boys. However, that is the position, and the question is: how is it brought about? On the 29th August, provisional lists of the marks got by all boys were circulated to the schools, and then, towards the end of September, when the scholarship list was expected, suddenly there was an announcement that the Greek paper was being revised, and as a result of the Greek paper being revised, certain boys, who were expected to get scholarships, did not get them. The Minister has been asked how it happened that the Greek paper was revised. He informed us that the present Greek examiner was a man who had been sitting and examining on the Greek papers for eight years, and that he was assisted by four assistant examiner, one of whom had acted as assistant examiner on five previous occasions, one on four, one on three and the other on one occasion. We are asked to believe that that group of men made an error of judgement, and the Minister explains that one of the reasons why an error of judgment was probably made by the revising examiner was that he did not see the sets of papers, that were examined by two different sets of examiners, all together. Now, you have a certain number of marks allotted for translation of a passage from Irish or English into Greek, a certain number of marks for translation from an unprescribed Greek author into Irish or English, and a certain number of marks for translation from a prescribed Greek author into Irish or English, as well as a certain number of marks for grammer and for history. Apparently, these were divided into two groups, and the examiner who examined one did not examine the other, but the assistant examiner reviewed the whole lot and was constantly in touch with the various examiners, and yet we are told that he did not know, until the marks were associated together, that there was an inconsistency in these marks in relation to previous years. I submit that these marks must have been brought together by the middle of July or the end of July, that they had been brought together three or four weeks before the provisional lists were issued on the 29th August, and that nothing was done until, the provisional lists having been circulated to the schools and certain complaints arising from some schools, the attention of the assistant examiner was drawn to the position.
The Minister asserts and emphasises that the revising examiner, on his own initiative, examined the situation. If he did, then why was it that the examination did not take place before the 29th August? Why was it that it was not until the scholarship lists were actually circulated in the end of September that there was any notification to the schools that there was any necessity for revision, or any revision? It is particularly important to know what took place, because, if there is to be any kind of satisfaction, or any kind of reliance or confidence, in the general scheme of things, the sort of thing which happened recently must not be allowed to happen again.
The Minister told us to-day that:
"Instructions were given in 1937 to the advising examiner in certain subjects, including Greek, that a gradual raising of the standard of marking should be adopted in future at the examinations in these subjects. The instructions applied to those subjects in which the large percentage of candidates obtaining high marks suggested that the existing standard was too low, and their purpose was to ensure that a higher standard was adopted."
It was noticed that in certain subjects, including Greek, a large percentage of candidates were obtaining high marks, and that suggested that the existing standard was too low. Nevertheless, the figures which the Minister provides to-day show that the percentage of pupils who passed in Greek, and the percentage of pupils who passed with honours, and the percentage of pupils who obtained 75 per cent. marks and upwards, increased from 1937 onwards, in spite of the fact that Greek was one of those subjects in which it had appeared that the existing standard was too low, as disclosed by the fact that a large percentage of the candidates were obtaining high marks. The Minister tells us that under the revised figures, 13.3 per cent. of the boys who sat for Greek obtained 75 per cent. and upwards, and that if the original marking had remained, only 9.4 per cent. would have obtained that figure, and he spoke of the necessity for having uniform standards. Last year the percentage of boys obtaining 75 per cent. and upwards was 19 per cent. in Greek, and only 3 per cent. in English and 11 per cent. in Science, although only 837 boys went in for Greek, 4,162 went in for English, and 2,240 went in for Science. Why was there any discrepancy—3 per cent. obtaining 75 per cent. and upwards in English, 11 per cent. obtaining 75 per cent. and upwards in Science, and 19 per cent. obtaining 75 per cent. and upwards in Greek? Why was the discrepancy allowed to be there?
This remarkable revision of things this year calls for very special attention. I asked the Minister what revision of this particular kind went on before. He had to go back to 1928 to find any example in which there was a general rise of marks. Since the introduction of the provisional lists in 1931, there had been no such change, and to say that a change like this was contemplated when the marks were issued as provisional lists is saying something that nobody can credit. Provisional lists, as the Minister said, have been issued since 1931. They were marked "Provisional" just for the reason that errors might creep in here and there, as has happened now and then. A particular paper may not have been examined or a tot might have been done incorrectly, but those lists were marked "Provisional" only for the purpose of safeguarding the Minister with regard to those matters. Now, the whole position in regard to teachers is simply thrown into utter confusion. The Minister starts a precedent by which, after the issue of those lists, there can be this wholesale change. The Minister has intimated that certain schools made certain representations. I submit to the Minister that that is what is at the bottom of the whole thing; that certain colleges which specialise in Greek have brought pressure to bear on the Minister to increase the Greek marks, and that those Greek marks have been increased to the detriment of boys who were concentrating on science and on mathematics. It certainly will come as a revelation to people who are interested in secondary education to realise what great predominance is given to Greek in the scholarship results; what great predominance is given to Greek when you compare it with English and with science as to the percentage of boys who were able to get 75 per cent. in it.
This matter calls not only for thorough explanation as to what has happened in this particular case, but for compensation to the boys who, in those extraordinary circumstances, have been deprived of certain sums of money by way of scholarship, the whole of which would not amount to more than, say, £160 or £180, and it does call for an examination into the standard that is being applied to Greek from the point of view of honours marks and the standard that is being applied, say, to English and to science. There was a slight suggestion in the Minister's answer to me a week ago that this change took place because of the number of failures. I asked the Minister to-day how many boys who failed in the general examination under the original Greek marking had passed in the general examination as a result of the change in marking, and the answer was "two", so that this rough examination of the position that Greek occupied in relation to other marks on the pass lists was not carried out because of the number of boys who were failing in the examination. It was carried out because of the scholarship position. I have indicated the different sections into which the examination is divided. When we consider those things, and when we talk of the severity of the examination, we are asked to think that, with experienced examiners—even though divided into two separate groups—examining those various aspects of the Greek paper, history, grammar, translation from Greek into English or Irish, and translation from English or Irish into Greek, such an injustice was done that the marks could be increased in each of those sections by 10 per cent.
The whole thing is an utterly rule of thumb arrangement. It is impossible to think that experienced men marked the papers either unjustly or unnecessarily severely. It is impossible to accept the Minister's explanation that it was the assistant examiner whose conscience first suggested to him that he had been guilty of an injustice, and it is impossible to get it out of our minds that pressure is being brought to bear on the Minister by certain educational establishments to give Greek additional preference to the preference he felt in 1937 it already had by reason of its being one of the papers so leniently marked that there was an unnecessarily large number of people getting high marks in it. Again I appeal to the Minister that, first of all, he has to get about £180 to remedy the personal injustice done to individual boys; secondly, that he has to explain the thing more satisfactorily if he wants the general public and the teaching fraternity to have confidence in his machine; and thirdly, that he should again review the position in regard to Greek in relation to English, Irish, Science, and some other subjects.
