asked the Minister for Education if the general certificate of Education which is to replace the group and intermediate certificates will be accepted for introduction in 1989 as recommended by the Curriculum and Examinations Board so that the first awards can be made in 1992; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - General Education Certificate.
43.
I propose to inform the Interim Curriculum and Examinations Board shortly that I am agreeable to accept in principle the recommendation made in their report to the then Minister for Education, dated March 1986 and entitled "In Our Schools" that the day vocational, group, and intermediate certificate examinations should be replaced by a unified system of assessment and certification.
I am very glad to hear that the Minister will be communicating with the board shortly. I hope "shortly" means within the next couple of weeks because this is a matter of great urgency. I want to ask the Minister if she accepts the board's recommendation that the course should be introduced by September 1989 with nine subjects on stream for full certification in 1992.
I said in my answer that I am prepared to accept in principle the report on this matter. It now remains a matter for further deliberation between the board, the Department and, most of all myself, because this is a highly important matter. It represents a huge change in the examination system and I am sure, a desirable one. It is a change which will not be precipitated by me so that the correct procedures will not be adopted. I regard it as a very meaningful and important step forward. It is a change that must be investigated fully as to its implications for the school system. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister remains very much in charge of matters such as this. I hope that my ongoing discussions with the Curriculum and Examinations Board will arrive at a conclusion so that the implementation date will remain as envisaged. There are points which still have to be worked out. The previous Minister and myself have accepted in principal the recommendations with regard to the proposed implementation dates. Many matters now arising out of that decision remain to be worked through.
Could I ask the Minister to be a little bit more concrete? This acceptance of the proposal was announced by the previous Minister on 11 November 1986 with a statement that discussions would be held in the Department. I would like to ask the Minister if the Department have written to the board or had discussions with the board on this question. The board put back the implementation date from 1991 to 1992 so as to ensure that schools and parents were informed in plenty of time that this course would be coming on stream and that the children entering the junior cycle in schools in 1989 would be coming into the new system.
I have already initiated discussions with the various interested parties. Yesterday I had a very full and fruitful discussion with the joint managerial bodies with regard to the projected timetable for the implementation of this examination. The previous Minister correctly took his time in agreeing to the proposal which was put forward by the interim board. He took some months to come to an agreement as to whether he would endorse in principle the proposal the board had put forward in relation to a common examination — a general certificate of education — to replace the group certificate and the intermediate certificate. I propose in principle to accept this proposal and to engage in very full discussions with all of the relevant bodies. This issue does not involve only the Curriculum and Examinations Board, myself and the Department of Education: it involves the joint managerial bodies, the parents, the teachers and the young people who will sit the examination. There are very sensitive and protracted negotiations to be held. I remain satisfied that the overall parameters of the timescale as envisaged by the board are the ones which will be followed and which will then issue.
May I ask a final supplementary?
The Deputy will have to be very brief because I want to dispose of the three remaining questions before the time is up.
An essential part of the movement to this new certification course is that assessment procedures have to go hand in hand with it. I would like to ask the Minister if she is proceeding along the lines recommended by the board and previous Ministers that the assessments for the examination will be put under the direction of the Curriculum and Examinations Board at the first possible moment.
That is an entirely different question from one about whose aegis this examination will be carried out under. It is a question to which I will address myself in due course. With regard to the question of assessment, many of the subjects already lend themselves to an element of assessment. Some subjects are more suited than others to such system. The question of a furtherance of the component of assessment in the various subjects which are suitable for that remains one which will have to be correctly addressed. There is a huge interest in this matter. The wider public need to be reassured on every aspect of the examination and the correct procedures to be followed. I remain very committed to the idea of the introduction of the common examination but I remain much more committed that it be done correctly with very full deliberation. Increased assessment remains one of the issues which will have to be dealt with at great length and authenticity if the examination in its final form is to emerge with authority.