Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013
66. Deputy Dara Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 222, the reason all of the 17 students assignments met the criteria when checked by the tutor and internal authenticator but not the external authenticator; if the external authenticator writes a report on the marking of the assignments, whether this is this available to be seen by the class; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43315/13]
View answerI am informed that the course tutor marking the assessments referred to by the Deputy deemed that the candidates had met the required standard. However, when the assessments were reviewed externally this was found not to be the case. This was further verified when all assessment materials were reviewed and re-marked by the training contractor's Subject Matter Experts. I understand that the external authentication report was issued to the training contractor who undertook a full review of all assessments. This report is not issued to the learners, rather to the training contractor to action. In relation to the seventeen student assessments, fourteen students have engaged in the revision process. Seven have submitted all paperwork and are now completed; seven others are in the process of submitting revised course work. The expected final submission date is 18th October, 2013. Two learners have confirmed that they would engage but could not do so at this time due to other commitments; one will not engage and wants his provisional results to be used for certification processing. Should any student not resubmit any further revised coursework, their original submissions will be processed through for External Authenticator and review, which is planned to take place on 21st October, 2013. The associated certification request will be made based on the outcome of this and made known to the students shortly after this date. The incident referred to by the Deputy relates to Cork City only.
