Exam uniform issue will rise again

WITH JUNIOR and Leaving Cert exams looming, second-level principals are increasingly concerned about the treatment of the school uniform issue by the Department of Education in the draft guidelines under discussion by the education partners.

The Department's guidelines state that it is inappropriate for authorities to deny access to exam centres to candidates who refuse to wear the uniform. Many principals regard the denial of access to an exam as the ultimate sanction in cases of misbehaviour, one which they would be unlikely to use. However, removal of the sanction, they say, will limit their authority and make their jobs impossible to do during exam periods.

"We are concerned that the proviso will undermine our authority and will be seen as an invitation to anyone who wants to upset the system," says the president of the Secondary Schools Principals Association of Ireland, Michael McCann.

"You have to ask `what next?'," says Liam Ryder, principal of Cabinteely Community School, Co Dublin. "What happens if students decide they want to smoke or eat or wear T-shirts displaying obscene language? We should have the authority to refuse exam admission with good reason and to ensure that the rights of other students to sit their exams are not interfered with."

Barry O'Brien, vice-president of the Association of Principals of Vocational Schools and Community Colleges, agrees. "We are concerned that the authority that is devolved upon principals during the year is the same as that which is devolved during exams." The school should have the authority to request that rule-breakers be accommodated at other centres, he says.

The view of the Minister for Education is that it would be impossible for her to sanction the turning away of students from a public exam centre, particularly as students would have to wait a full year before trying again. Students who misbehave within the exam centre can be disciplined by the exam supervisor.

Other concerns also arise. "In my previous school, where uniforms weren't worn during exams, parents complained that their children were demanding new outfits for each day of the exams," says Sister Angela Leahy, principal of Presentation Secondary School, Limerick. This puts pressure on parents, who are reluctant to appear heavy-handed at a difficult time, she says.