I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity of raising this matter on the Adjournment. I understand the restrictions which you and your Office have imposed on the scope of the debate. I understand the reason for the restrictions and I intend to abide by them because already we have had a discussion on the question out of which this whole matter has arisen. I am confined merely to the matter of students and their examinations. It is as well to inform the House that a large number of students are involved in this situation—students of the technological colleges and those of the regional technical colleges. The dispute involves examinations at first, second, third and fourth year levels. My intention here is to help and I do not intend indulging in any form of acrimony or criticism of the Minister. Rather, my contribution will be in the nature of an appeal to the Minister.
The position in which the students find themselves is not of their making. They have followed their courses and are anxious to gain recognition by way of certificate or diploma for their efforts. Due to the doubt about the whole matter the students have been upset considerably. I have detected this from my experience in meeting with them. It is my opinion—and the Minister is on record as having expressed the same sentiments—that, perhaps, we pay too much attention to examinations with a resulting serious effect on students. But when examinations are necessary to enable students to advance either into employment or into further education we must take into account above all their position.
I understand, for example, that in Kevin Street alone, in the whole-time applied science department, there are examinations for each year of three years while the electrical engineering diploma course students take examinations in each of four years. In the light of activities regarding degrees and so on, the House will be aware that this is controversial territory. There is a diploma in optics in respect of which students must complete six months practical work but they must be successful in an examination before embarking on that practical work. Obviously, this is not take place. Today I spoke with a student who is studying for the examination for medical laboratory technicians. In his case, too, the practical side of his work in a hospital cannot be undertaken without first sitting for and being successful in the examination. Consequently, his whole career could be in jeopardy because of the present situation. He must have his first year examination before a hospital will be satisfied to take him.
I could go through the list: there are courses in radio telecommunications, wholetime radio communications and electrical engineering. There are courses for radio officers and also some groups are seeking certificates to enable them to take some of the London University degree courses. What I am appealing for is a large measure of compassion from the Minister. I know his difficulty. I am aware of the stresses experienced by all Ministers and the Minister for Education is not at the bottom of the list in so far as stresses and strains are concerned. However, it used to be said of Julius Caesar that he regarded ingenium or the application of intelligence as the most important factor in any career even in such a crude career as general of an army. I believe that the Department of Education have the ingenium, that they have the resources to attack this problem and settle it. There is an old Irish proverb which says: “Is cuma nó muc duine gan beart”. I am looking for a beart. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that the Department can produce one. It will be tantamount to a serious failure on the part of the Department if they do not do so, if they cannot do so.
There is no use in saying: "Thanks be to God I am not responsible. Thanks be to God the buck can be passed, or the blame can be laid elsewhere". There is a strong obligation on the Minister and his Department to use all their resources—and the resources of a Minister and Department of State are great—to try to facilitate the students at this time. There is a great old friend of negotiators called "without prejudice". He could be brought in here to get over the difficulty of having the examinations now. The examinations could be held. The Minister and his officials should bend themselves to this task and utilise, as great dramatists used to utilise, the deus ex machina, utilise “without prejudice” and let the examinations go ahead without prejudice to the Minister, without prejudice to the teachers and, above all, without prejudice to the students' position.
The House is aware from the numbers of copies of the letter from the principal in Kevin Street which were distributed today of what is really at issue, what has really excited the students. The principal of Kevin Street has said that even at this eleventh hour it would be possible to salvage the final year examinations. It is too late for the other ones. He said he is aware of the widespread and justified concern of the students of the college regarding their examinations this year and the possibility that they will not be held. He fully appreciates —and I am sure the House appreciates also—the seriousness of the situation particularly for final year students whose opportunity of seeking jobs with the qualifications for which they have worked so hard or for several years is now put in great jeopardy. It was our hope that eleventh hour efforts could be made to retrieve the situation. This is what I am doing, and I am doing it without acrimony, without looking for scapegoats. I am asking the Minister if he will utilise the resources at his disposal without prejudice to what happens later on to see that the students are satisfied.
The students themselves have stated they are in a very difficult position as between the Department and the TUI. They are asking for some kind of conversation, some kind of dialogue, some way to get around the table and to try to use intelligence, to use all the resources of human intelligence. We are dealing with education and we want to solve this problem. The Minister may be advised: "Do not do this. You will go to your defeat if you do this. Precedents, regulations, rules, and so on, are there". I am not asking the Minister to come to Canossa. I am simply asking him to do his best with his officials to get the students out of this serious dilemma. Mercy and compassion can season justice.
I realise how people working in a Department of State will attach great importance to the dangers of establishing a precedent, the dangers of making new regulations, but humanity, compassion and consideration are important also as elements in our community. It is for those I am appealing. I have had letters from students all over the country. I will quote from one letter from a student in the RTC in Cork. He said there are thousands of careers at stake and the whole regional college system is in danger if no examinations are set this year. In other words, he fears what may happen in the next academic year.
There has been a suggestion that the examinations could take place in September. That is not a very good solution. It has serious weaknesses. First of all, except in a particular economic situation, a particular type family situation, it is not easy—and anybody who did examinations in the autumn will understand and appreciate this—to keep up and organise studies over the summer holidays. It is easy to lose momentum. There is the second problem that the autumn period could be used for supplemental examinations for those who failed in the summer. The whole examination complex is postponed and transferred to the autumn. No form of repeat examination could take place before Chirstmas, thus disrupting another academic year.
There is no weakness in settling this examination problem without prejudice. There is no danger that the defences of Marlborough Street will be breached by such a settlement and that the whole complex of rules and regulations will be disrupted. The Minister knows and understands this himself. This is an appeal without acrimony to the Minister to use his good graces and his power and the not inconsiderable strength of the officers in his Department to make available for the students in the colleges of technology, in the third level colleges throughout the country, their examinations. By doing so he will be earning the gratitude of all who have the interests of education in general and students in particular at heart.
