Vol. 509 No. 3
12 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has for the earlier publication of the junior certificate results in view of the decisions which have to be made by teachers and students before the opening of the fifth academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20093/99]
The dates on which the results of the certificate examinations are issued are a function of the timing of the actual examinations and the time required for the marking of scripts and processing of the results.
While my Department will continue to make every effort to issue results as early as possible it must be recognised that there are real constraints on making any significant improvement in respect of the junior certificate if the issue date in the case of the leaving certificate is not to be affected. Given that there is a finite pool of suitably qualified examiners my Department ensures that the number of examiners engaged in the leaving certificate marking process is adequate to enable the result deadlines to be met. This is possible because the later issue of junior certificate results provides some latitude in relation to providing additional time where necessary to the pool of examiners available for junior certificate marking. Ultimately, the time required for the proper execution of the marking process is a direct function of the number of available examiners and the number of scripts to be examined.
I am sure the Deputy will agree that priority must be given to the issue of the leaving certificate results so as to ensure that the CAO college entry process executes in a timely manner.
The Deputy will be aware that I have recently issued a discussion paper in relation to assessment at junior cycle. As matters stand the junior certificate examination is very much a mirror image of the leaving certificate despite the fact that both examinations serve very different purposes. Undoubtedly, the issue of timing of results is one that should be looked at in the context of any future changes.
