Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 Jun 2001

Vol. 539 No. 1

Written Answers. - State Examinations.

David Stanton

Question:

462 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties that students taking French in this year's leaving certificate encountered regarding the aural section involving a tape that may have been difficult to hear; the number of complaints or queries that have been received in this regard; the action he intends to take in the matter; if all schools involved in the examinations encountered similar problems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19087/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

My Department has an established procedure for dealing with any issues that arise during the aural tests. In all, some 10,000 aural examination sessions, involving the use of tape-recorders, take place in examination centres countrywide as part of the junior and leaving certificate examinations in Irish, French, German, Spanish and Italian. While we would clearly like to have each of the 10,000 sessions executed successfully, it is a reality of this type of examination, coupled with the risk of human error, that problems do occur in a small number of cases each year.

The key issue is that, whatever happens, my Department must be in a position to ensure that, as a cardinal principle, no candidate is disadvantaged because of some occurrence outside his or her control. To that end, my Department notifies schools each year before the examinations start about the process that applies should a problem occur during an aural session. In essence, this involves the examination superintendent completing a comprehensive report on any occurrence that may have impacted on a candidate or candidates during a test. This process of reporting also provides for input from the school authorities if they so wish. All of this is designed to ensure the chief examiner for the subject has available to them a full report of the circumstances surrounding the test that he or she can consider in the context of the work produced by the candidates. In this way, the chief examiner is better placed to assess how the conduct of the test may have impacted on a candidate's performance. The chief examiner has power to apply any adjustments to the marks awarded that he or she considers appropriate, based on the core principle that the candidate should not be disadvantaged in terms of the final grade awarded.

A separate approach applies where the complaint is of a more general nature and is not specific to a particular centre or candidate(s). An example is where candidates in general had difficulty with some of the material on the tape spoken by one of the speakers. Any such reports with what might be termed a common, non-centre specific, complaint would fall to be considered by the chief examiner in the context of the preparation of the marking scheme and the overall approach to the marking of the subject concerned.

The examinations branch of my Department, where the process that I described above is being co-ordinated, has received a small number of queries and communications about the conduct of the leaving certificate French aural examination. These are being dealt with under the terms of the procedures outlined above.

Question No. 463 answered with Question No. 409.