Vol. 520 No. 5
83 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans he has for the earlier publication of the results of the junior certificate examination, having regard to the important decisions students have to make about subjects to be taken in subsequent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16133/00]
The result dates for the certificate examinations derive from the timing of the examinations and the time required for marking the scripts and processing the results. While my Department makes 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 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, where necessary, additional time to examiners undertaking the marking of the junior certificate.
I am sure the Deputy will agree that priority must be given to the issue of the leaving certificate results to ensure that the CAO college entry process executes in a timely manner.
