The demand by the main secondary teachers' union for a week-long closure of second-level schools for oral and practical exams next year will be resisted at a meeting of a Department of Education working party today.
Instead, the Department will table a plan for teachers to record their pupils in Irish, French, Spanish, German and Italian and then forward the tape to a Department examiner. The plan, favoured by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland would close schools for five extra days at Easter but it has encountered stiff resistance from school managers and within the Department of Education.
The Irish secondary school year, at just 167 days, is one of the shortest in the EU. One source said further closures were "very problematic" given the widespread concern about the erosion of the school year.
Under the Department plan oral and practical exams would be facilitated by the class teacher, as opposed to the current system where pupils are examined by teachers from other schools.
More than 1,300 teachers are seconded from their own school to perform 115,000 interviews in language subjects during a two-week period. The reluctance of school managers to release such teachers has, however, placed great strain on the operation of the oral and practical exams.
Schools are reluctant to commit teachers to the oral exams because of the impact this would have on language teaching in the run-up to the Leaving Certificate.
The Department hopes schools will be more willing to release teachers under the tape system. It also believes the use of the class teacher would make exams less intimidating for students. Teachers already assess their own pupils' portfolio work in some Junior/Leaving Cert exams including art, construction studies and engineering.
The ASTI has long opposed any form of continuous assessment by the students' own teacher in State exams. It believes the current system of external assessment better protects the integrity of the system, especially in a small society like Ireland where teachers could come under pressure from parents and others. The Department hopes the tape system, by the use of the external examiner, addresses the ASTI's concerns.
Today's meeting of the exams working party, which will be chaired by Mr Martin Hanvey, principal officer of the Department's exam branch, will hear how the current system for oral and practicals is at breaking point.
The crisis is so acute that one group, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, will propose that orals/practicals be held at night. The NAPD envisages the £5 cost of sitting the exam could be doubled to help meet any additional costs.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and other expert groups want to see the oral/practical dimension of both the Leaving and Junior Cert exams widened, especially in science subjects. The Republic is one of the few education systems which does not offer practical exams in science.