Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 May 1992

Vol. 419 No. 7

Written Answers. - Leaving Certificate Timetable.

Eamon Gilmore

Question:

109 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education the reason it appears that two subjects, Spanish and Technical Drawing, have been allotted the same time on the leaving certificate examination timetable, thus causing difficulties for students taking each of these; and the steps which are being taken to address this problem.

Minister for Education (Mr. S. Brennan)

Considerable thought is given each year to the scheduling of subjects within the Timetable of the certificate examinations with special account being taken of the number of candidates taking each subject and of previous cases where there has been a clash of subjects.

At the same time, by longstanding agreement with the school authorities the examination period may not exceed 13 days. This agreement takes into account the need to keep the overall period of the examination from being excessively long and also takes into account the time necessary to mark the candidate's scripts and the need to have the results issued to the schools at the earliest possible date.

Given these constraints and the range of subjects which must be examined it is inevitable that each year a number of subjects will be scheduled for the same time in the later stages of the examination timetable. No change can be made in the examination timetable for 1992 at this stage.

In the case of the subjects referred to by the Deputy, candidates will take one of the examinations in the morning at the scheduled time and the other examination in the afternoon. During the interval between the two examinations these candidates will be kept under supervision.