asked the Minister for Education if he is aware that the failure of his Department to make public the results of the Intermediate Certificate examination until early in September gave rise to grave dissatisfaction amongst students, teachers and parents; and if efforts will be made to expedite the announcement of results in future years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Intermediate Certificate Examination Results.
57.
I am not aware that there was any such grave dissatisfaction. Every effort is made by my Department to issue the results of the Intermediate Certificate examination as soon as possible after the completion of the examination. I should explain, however, that this year there were 15,205 candidates for the Intermediate Certificate examination and 7,309 candidates for the Leaving Certificate Examination. This involved the marking of about 260,000 answer books. The first concern of my Department must be to ensure uniform and good marking and, therefore, it must afford ample time to the examiners and to the office staff to achieve this end. I am satisfied that it is only with a very big effort on the part of all concerned that it is possible to have the Leaving Certicate results issued early in August and Intermediate Certificate results available about the beginning of September.