Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 17 Jun 1999

Vol. 506 No. 4

Written Answers. - State Examinations.

Ivor Callely

Question:

93 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has satisfied himself with the arrangements in place for pupils sitting the intermediate and leaving certificate examinations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15635/99]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

I am satisfied that the arrangements put in place for the certificate examinations are satisfactory.

More than 130,000 students are taking the examinations in 4,500 examination centres. More than 5,000 superintendents have been engaged to superintend in those centres and in special centres in schools and hospitals. In all there will be in excess of 70,000 individual examination sessions countrywide.

David Stanton

Question:

94 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science if, further to the Adjournment debate of 11 March 1999, he has given any further consideration to the need to offer students who suffer a crisis the opportunity to repeat state examinations in July or August of the same year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15636/99]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

Within the limitations of our examination system, every possible effort is made to accommodate candidates who suffer illness, bereavement or other trauma either immediately before or during the examinations.

These arrangements, which are put in place at very short notice, can involve adjustments to examination starting and finishing times, provision of special centres in hospitals and support from the Department's psychological service.

The nature of our examination system imposes very real constraints in this area. Essentially the leaving certificate examination is a terminal examination which is examined by external examiners. This contrasts with other examination systems where assessment is conducted on a continuous basis or where assessment takes place at regular intervals and where some of the assessment is conducted by the student's own teachers. It is an inevitable consequence of a terminal point in time system of assessment that some students will take particular tests at a time that is far from suitable for them. By contrast where students are regularly assessed over the entire duration of a course the final grade awarded can be based on overall performance and therefore need not be contingent exclusively on how a student performs on one day alone.

I know that each year my Department receives correspondence from candidates and their parents setting out a wide range of difficulties and traumas. It is no exaggeration to say that some of these are quite heart-rending. I asked the advisory group on examinations, which is chaired by Dr. Tom Kelleghan, to include this area in its discussion paper on special arrangements. This paper, which I arranged to have published recently, makes a number of critical observations. In particular, the point is made that a basic difficulty in addressing the situation where a candidate was not able to give of his or her best during an examination is the impossibility of establishing objective criteria that would identify cases that merit consideration and of determining the appropriate adjustment to be made in the marking process.

The group's discussion paper also refers to a range of possible further options including a repeat examination, basing a candidate's grade on a portion of the examination only and moving to a modular system of examinations. As the discussion paper brings out, none of these offer simple or quick fix solutions. In the case of repeat examinations there are, of course, issues of inter candidate equity arising from the use of different test instruments and the very real fact that the very tight CAO deadlines impose enormous pressure on the timely issue of results from the June examinations.

As part of the process of comprehensively reviewing our whole approach to special arrangements, the advisory group has invited submissions from interested parties. When these have been carefully considered, I expect to receive a final report from the group in the autumn. It is my intention that any changes in this difficult and complex area will be soundly based and command full public support. The present review which is the first such open public discussion of its kind, is designed to meet these key requirements.