Jim Mitchell
Question:96 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science the options he favours for timetabling oral examinations in order to reduce the level of disruption to school timetabling. [16141/00]
Written Answers. - Oral Examinations.
Conscious of the difficulties experienced by schools during the oral and practical examinations, earlier this year my Department established a working group representative of the partners in education, including school principals, to review current arrangements and to make recommendations for a new structure that would address the problems of the current system.
The working group began its work by consider ing the merits of various proposals, advanced in submissions from the partners, in relation to the examinations. It emerged early in their work that there was no simple solution to the problems caused by the current examining model which requires teacher absence from schools.
My Department proposed, within the working group, a new model entirely for oral examinations that would eliminate altogether the need for teachers to be absent from their own schools. This model would involve the teachers within a school acting as exam facilitators in order to produce a tape or video recording of each student demonstrating his-her oral skills. The recording would be examined subsequently by an external examiner. This model would provide considerable flexibility for schools in deciding when to conduct the tests and it should also prove to be less pressurised for candidates than the current model. Work is continuing within my Department on developing this model including the type of test material that might be used. A fuller evaluation of its merits should be possible when the work on possible test material is completed in the coming months. I look forward to receiving the findings of the working group in due course.