Vol. 496 No. 3
448 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will set a schedule date for the publication of the junior certificate results in order that students can have certainty as to when their results will be available at an early stage; and if he will set this date before the end of the summer vacation in order that students, including mature students, can make their course selections. [22860/98]
The dates on which the results of the certificate examinations are issued are a function of the timing of the actual examinations and the time required for the marking of scripts and processing of the results. Schools are notified well in advance of the likely date of issue of the junior certificate results.
While my Department will continue to make every effort to issue results as early as possible, it must be recognised that there are real constraints on making any significant improvement in respect of the junior certificate if the issue date in the case of the leaving certificate is not to be affected. Given that there is a finite pool of suitably qualified examiners, my Department ensures that the number of examiners engaged in the leaving certificate marking process is adequate to enable the result deadlines to be met. This is possible because the later issue of junior certificate results provides some latitude in relation to providing additional time where necessary to the pool of examiners available for junior certificate marking. Ultimately, the time required for the proper execution of the marking process is a direct function of the number of available examiners and the number of scripts to be examined.
I am sure the Deputy will agree that priority must be given to the issue of the leaving certificate results so as to ensure that the CAO college entry process executes in a timely manner.
