Vol. 535 No. 2
64 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Education and Science if, in view of the ASTI dispute and the number of teaching days lost, he has considered whether those correcting this year's leaving certificate examination papers should be appraised of whether the individual pupils were directly affected by the dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12279/01]
While I am anxious to have the school programme completed for all students, the examination process cannot be used as a basis for compensation for loss of tuition time. The integrity of the examination process is based on the preparation of test instruments based on syllabi and marking schemes devised for each test instrument and refined, based on their application to samples of scripts, prior to finalising the marking scheme. The same marking scheme is then applied to all scripts in a particular subject.
The suggestion that students should be compensated for factors impacting adversely on their studies is raised regularly with the examinations branch of my Department. In any year some students can have their examination preparation interrupted due to illness, bereavement and other traumatic situations. Entire schools can experience short-term interruptions due to adverse weather or heating failure. While I acknowledge that there was widespread disruption this year affecting thousands of pupils it is still the case that there is no objective and fair way of trying to compensate for such events by what would effectively be arbitrary adjustments in the marking process. It is impossible to fairly gauge how any one individual is affected in such situations compared to another. There is actually no safe, credible and equitable way to do what the Deputy is suggesting.
The only approach is to make every effort to have courses completed by maximising the use of the time remaining before the end of the school year. I am encouraged by reports that schools have been attempting to do that.
In addition, the Labour Court recommended that any teacher involved in the dispute, who is certified by the school as having contributed in full to the completion of the school programme, be paid £1,750. The ASTI has put this to a ballot of their members and we await the outcome of this ballot.
