High standard shows pupils not affected by strike -ASTI

The high standard of this year's Leaving Cert results proves the ASTI strike had no impact on students, teachers' groups have said.

The ASTI president, Ms Catherine Fitzpatrick, said it was obvious from yesterday's results that the teachers' strike did not adversely effect students' exam performance.

"The dispute did not have any impact on the students in their exams. Teachers made sure the courses were covered," she said.

She did not believe exam papers were generously marked to compensate for the disruption caused by the strike and said the results reflected the levels of ability to which students perform.

"There are procedures in place for marking papers, so extra marks could not have been awarded. Today's results are a testimony to the dedication of teachers and students," she said. "To complete this exam after five or six years of schooling is a great achievement."

The improvement in higher-level English grades, where 36 per cent of students achieved B3 or higher compared to 26.6 per cent last year, was welcomed by the TUI president, Mr John MacGabhann.

"English has been unfairly marked in the past. It's been difficult to get an honour in the A and B brackets and the percentage getting As and Bs in English was way below other subjects. This emerging equalisation shows the exam mechanism is getting a well overdue fine tuning," he said.

Mr MacGabhann said the results validated the introduction of the new English curriculum.

"It shows a cognisance of the fact that kids are working under extreme pressure and the level of expectation has been pitched far too high."

He said the more rigid method of marking the English papers, where set criteria are used instead of "impression marking", did more to improve results than any sympathy on the part of examiners. "I don't believe you can mark softly," he said.

The level of effort made by students may have been more sustained this year because of the teachers' dispute, he added.

The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, congratulated students, parents and teachers on the results. He noted that while the results followed a broadly similar pattern to previous years, there was a higher proportion receiving honours than last year.

"This will ensure that the overwhelming majority of candidates will receive an acceptable offer through the CAO in the coming days," he said.

A decline of 6 per cent in the number of candidates sitting this year's exam, along with a wider range of further education options, particularly post Leaving Cert courses, means "the class of 2001 will have more opportunities to progress to further education than ever before".

The Minister thanked students and teachers who, he said, clearly put in extra effort to ensure candidates were fully prepared for the exams. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) congratulated students on their results and commended "both the good work of their teachers and also the support shown by parents for the welfare and success of their sons and daughters". The NCCA extended particular congratulations to the students who sat the Leaving Cert applied exams.