Request led to earlier exam dates - ASTI

THE starting date for this year's Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate examinations was brought forward by a week after the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI)made representations to the Department of Education, according to the union magazine, ASTIR.

The exams, which begin tomorrow, would normally have started a week later, on June 12th, but for the union's request to the Department of Education for an earlier start.

Under a formula agreed by the Department with school managers and the teacher unions, the exams normally start each year on the second Wednesday in June, but not later than June 12th, according to ASTIR.

But a late start naturally entails a later finish to the exams, and the marking process would also be delayed by a week. The result would be that the 3,500 examiners involved in marking the exams - almost all of them teachers - would have to work later into their holiday period in July.

The ASTI, which has about 2,500 members involved in the marking, asked that the starting date be brought forward. The union pointed out that a later start would put the Department under pressure to produce the Leaving Cert results in time for mid August.

However, the Minister for Education put forward a different reason for the early starting date in reply to a Dail question last November. Ms Breathnach said the practice was to begin on a Wednesday, not later than June 11th. This version of the regulation would not allow a start on June 12th.

Ms Breathnach backed up her reply with details of the starting dates for the exams between 1986 and 1997. The last time the exams started as early as the 5th was in 1991; but in 1986 and 1997 the starting date was the 11th.

There is a precedent, however, for starting on the 12th. According to the ASTI, the exams began on this date in 1985, just outside the period covered in the Minister's parliamentary reply.

Perhaps the difference in starting date is of no importance. As John White of the ASTI points out, schools have to put in 167 days, one way or another.

However, parents may have noticed that their children who are not involved in exams were released up to a week earlier than normal this year. Schools normally wind down at the end of May or the first week in June, but it seems a majority opted for the earlier week this time around.

June is traditionally linked to the certificate exams in the minds of teachers and parents, so a change of date is highly unlikely. The Leaving Cert takes place earlier than Britain's A levels, but later than the national exams in many other countries. Only a lengthening of the school year would result in the exams being shifted to a later date, but this would be stoutly resisted by teachers.

However, the timing of the various practical assessments associated with the Leaving Cert - orals, aurals and project work - is the subject of debate. School managers have argued that these assessments are causing serious disruption to the teaching activities of schools, as most examiners are teachers.

It has been suggested that they could be shifted to a period out of term time - either to the Easter holidays or to a time in June. But, again, teachers are unlikely to find any merit in these proposals, which would result in a longer working year.

Nick Killian of the National Parents' Council (Post Primary) suggests that the emphasis on written exams is excessive. If continuous assessment were introduced from the start of the two year senior cycle, and spaced at regular intervals throughout it, there would be less difficulty in time tabling the testing of pupils, he says.

Although the exams last more than two weeks, students have most of their papers done within the first week. This year, the Junior Cert finishes on June 19th, and the Leaving Cert on June 21st.