Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 October 2014
32. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will examine the situation where students are hospitalised during their leaving certificate examinations with a view to seeing if deferred examinations may be sat. [37873/14]
View answerI am informed by the State Examinations Commission that it regularly receives requests for assistance from candidates who either cannot take an examination or cannot perform to the best of their abilities because of illness, bereavement or other trauma. However, our examinations model is constrained in the degree to which the life experiences of individual students can be accommodated. Each year the Commission makes arrangements, such as early or deferred sittings and special sittings in hospitals, to cater for a wide range of situations but this is only possible on the day of the examination.
The SEC has examined the possibility of providing repeat examinations and advises that within our current, externally examined examinations model it would not be possible to hold repeat examinations and to have results available to the required deadlines.
