asked the Minister for Education whether, in view of the fact that the preparatory colleges examination and the Donegal County Council scholarship examination are held on the same dates and that, as a result, students eligible to sit for both examinations must forgo one or the other, he will arrange to have these examinations held on different dates in future.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - School Examination Dates.
The county council scholarships examination is based on the programme of Standard VI in national schools and the upper age limit for competitors thereat is 14 years on the 1st August of the year of the examination. The preparatory college entrance examination is based on the programme of Standard VII and the upper age limit for competitors is 15 years on the 1st August. It would not be warranted, for administrative and financial reasons, to hold these examinations at different periods of the year, but as even in present circumstances it is open to a candidate to compete at both examinations in successive years I am satisfied that the existing arrangements are in themselves reasonable.
Could the Minister state what cost this would involve to the Exchequer? What would be the cost of arrangements whereby those examinations would be held at different dates? Is the cost very great?
I have not that information, but I could send it to the Deputy.
Will the Minister not take into consideration the fact that competing in successive years at these two examinations may mean pupils will have to stay an extra year in the national school to bring them up to the 15-year limit, and surely that is a consideration worth bearing in mind in deciding this matter?
The Deputy probably has an idea of the arrangements that have to be made for the holding of these examinations and to duplicate those would involve considerable administrative difficulty both for the schools and the Department, not to talk of the doubling—at least—of the cost of holding the examinations for a very, very small number of cases, and the reasonableness of doing anything like that seems to me to be very questionable.
Would the Minister not agree that were it possible for the children to do both examinations in the same year, is it not likely that there would be very many more doing them? Since it is impossible at the moment, surely it is not an argument to say there would be very few cases?
In relation to the importance of the examination in question, and particularly to the importance of the preparatory colleges examination, I would not like to encourage more two-way attempts on these examinations. I think the purposes of these examinations are very specific and very difinite and the programmes and age limits are selected very definitely for that. I do not see at the present moment any particular reason why, to convenience a few pupils or a few teachers who would like to spread their net a little bit wider, a very, very complicated scheme which would be administratively very difficult and onerous and also fairly costly should be evolved or why there should be a doubling-up of difficulties to meet what I think must be a very small problem, if it is a problem at all.