Micheál Martin
Ceist:164 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for Education if she will undertake a further re-examination of a leaving certificate economics examination paper submitted by a person (details supplied) in County Waterford. [20213/96]
Written Answers. - Leaving Certificate Examination Paper.
The position is that in the certificate examinations all candidates have their work marked once. Where they are not satisfied with the result, there is provision to have their work marked again in accordance with the procedures for re-checking which are notified to schools and candidates. There is no provision of any subsequent marking.
I should explain that in the certificate examinations the work of all candidates is marked by examiners appointed by my Department. Before beginning the work of marking, each examiner attends a marking conference where the procedures for marking are fully explained and where the draft marking scheme, drawn up by the chief examiner and his-her advisers, is applied to a number of sample scripts. The draft marking scheme, which is related directly to the questions posed in the current year, may be adjusted, if necessary, in the light of the comments of subject associations and representatives of teachers and in the light of the experience of the examiners in marking the sample scripts. The work of marking is subsequently carried out by the examiner in accordance with the marking scheme approved at the conference, in accordance with detailed written instructions, and under the supervision and guidance of an advising examiner.
Where a school believes, in the case of a candidate entered by the school, that the result in a subject is seriously at variance with what was expected, it is open to the school to apply for a recheck of the result. The recheck process involves a full clerical check and a remarking by an experienced examiner, other than the original examiner, of the work submitted by the candidate in the examination. Where the marks awarded by the recheck examiner are greater than the original total to the extent that an upgrade may be warranted, the script is further examined by the inspector for the subject. An upgrade is approved where the inspector and the recheck examiner are both in agreement or where the upgrade is the result of a clerical error.
In the case of the candidate referred to by the Deputy, the position is that the candidate's school applied for a recheck in the subject economics. The work or rechecking was carried out by an experienced examiner in accordance with the procedures which have been described. The appeal examiner considered that the candidate's work merited an upgrading to a grade B2 and the inspector for the subject agreed, after examining the script, that this upgrade was warranted.