Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 18 Jun 2002

Vol. 553 No. 2

Written Answers. - State Examinations.

Paul McGrath

Question:

420 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the concerns being expressed by both students and teachers concerning the leaving certificate biology honours examination; his views on the fact that some questions related to minor aspects of the biology curriculum while sectors of the course were ignored, diagrams on some papers were blurred and hence were difficult to understand, questions relating to other diagrams were unclear and imprecise, questions on dissecting frogs related to what was an illegal procedure and one question related to a student's ability to draw rather than their knowledge of the topic in question; if he will consider setting an alternative paper in view of the widespread disappointment among teachers, parents and students about this exam paper; and his proposals in this regard. [13917/02]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

I am aware of concerns that have been expressed in relation to the 2002 leaving certificate biology higher level examination paper. The examination paper was designed to test candidates' knowledge across the range of the syllabus. The current biology syllabus is presented in ten sections and no section of the syllabus was omitted from the examination paper. There is a significant element of choice within the examination paper whereby candidates are required to answer four questions from eight questions provided in part 2 of the paper. Candidates are required to answer six from seven short questions in part 1 of the paper. If there is evidence that the diagram in question 6 was blurred on some examination papers, the marking conference will take that into consideration. The questions relating to the other two diagrams for question 5 and question 14 are very clear and precise.

There was no question in relation to the dissection of frogs. Candidates were asked to describe an experiment that involved frog tadpoles. This experiment is specified in the syllabus. The Department has a licence – No. C9/2002 – from Dúchas to collect frogspawn and this licence permits teachers of science subjects to collect frogspawn for educational purposes. It has been established practice for many years in biology examination papers to require candidates to draw diagrams of a variety of objects including tissues and organs. The published marking schemes and published chief examiners' reports have indicated that marks are awarded for diagrams and teachers are aware of this practice.

My Department does not intend to set an alternative examination paper. All correspondence from individuals and organisations should be forwarded to the examinations branch. They then will be brought to the attention of the chief examiner and the examining team in the context of developing a marking scheme that will take into account any valid issues raised. The marking scheme for this paper will be published along with those in all other subjects in advance of the viewing of scripts in late August. In that way, examination candidates who view their scripts will have the opportunity to see in detail precisely how marks were allocated.