The Department of Education hopes to recruit more than 1,000 graduates to help correct the Leaving and Junior Cert exams if secondary teachers proceed with their threat to withdraw co-operation.
The Department's plan, details of which have become known to The Irish Times, would see graduates - both those recently out of college and other more experienced professionals - correct papers in teams under close direction from inspectors.
Other details include:
Rescheduling oral and practical exams until after Easter.
An extended intensive training period for new supervisors and assessors.
Priority given to the assessment of the Leaving Cert with publication of Junior Cert results delayed, if necessary, until October.
A commitment to provide more university places in the Republic if students destined for British colleges face difficulties because of any delay in issuing Leaving Cert results (the Department believes it can issue results as normal in mid-August).
The use of language specialists from the major third-level institutions to assess oral exams.
Work on the contingency plan has been under way for several months, but it is now being activated after the weekend decision of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) to reject the Labour Court recommendation in its case. Officials have prepared detailed plans on a subject-by-subject basis. Examiners are paid about #163;2,000.
The ASTI will this week begin a fresh phase of industrial action beginning with a national one-day strike on Wednesday. The ban on exam work, which is already in place, will continue.
About 3,500 people are required to correct an estimated 600,000 scripts in the Leaving Cert. Members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, primary and retired teachers will be available to mark scripts. More than 1,000 graduates will be required to pick up the shortfall if ASTI withdraws co-operation.
According to one source, these could be "any graduate . . . young or old, who has some time on their hands".
The Department's plan is heavily dependent on co-operation from the third-level sector. However, since the universities need the Leaving Cert class of 2001 to take up their college places next October, this is not seen as a major difficulty.
Informal discussions have already taken place between the Department and some senior university figures.
Advertisements seeking graduates to act as examiners will be placed in the national press in the next month.
This week the Department will also advertise vacancies for the #163;60-a-day post of supervising the exams. About 4,500 people are needed to supervise exams in 750 centres. The Republic is one of the few countries still using teachers to supervise exams.
The ASTI general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, has asked TUI members not to undertake any correction or supervision work normally done by ASTI members. However, it is understood the Department will not ask the TUI to take on any additional work in the exams.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has said he is "aghast" that the ASTI's central executive committee could reject the Labour Court proposals without putting them to a ballot of its 17,000 members. "The ASTI . . . seems to wish to bully students, their parents, the public, the Department of Education and the Government into capitulation," he said.
At a press conference on Saturday Mr Lennon said the Labour Court had made no serious attempt to address his union's 30 per cent pay claim. The ASTI's president, Mr Don McCluskey, said he had never come across such a "negative document" after 30 years' experience in trade unionism.
Under questioning, Mr Len non agreed his members could be in breach of their contractual responsibilities. Some education sources suggested at the weekend that the union may be vulnerable to a potentially expensive legal challenge from parents or others because of its failure to put the proposed ban on exam work to a ballot of members who routinely work as exam supervisors or examiners.