The State's 750 second-level schools are set to close for tuition for five days around Easter next year to allow oral and practical exams to take place, under a radical plan circulated by a Department of Education working group.
In a new departure, teachers with no involvement in orals or practicals will be asked to take on a range of non-teaching duties - including school planning and parent/teacher meetings - during the period when the school is closed.
The Department of Education is also pressing for a new system in which language teachers could conduct their orals with their own pupils and forward the tape for marking by Department of Education examiners.
Under the plan favoured by a clear majority of the working group schools will shut for normal tuition for two days before Easter and three days during Easter week.
While the school year differs from school to school, the overall effect would be to shorten the number of days available for tuition by two days.
The new proposals form part of a 27-page report circulated yesterday by the exams branch of the Department, details of which have been obtained by The Irish Times.
The report outlines the favoured options among teaching unions, parents' groups, school managers and others to deal with the disruption caused to schools by the current oral examination system - and the acute shortage of teachers to perform them.
More than 1,300 teachers are seconded from their school to act as oral examiners in other schools. Under the current system they perform approximately 110,000 oral exams in Irish, French, Spanish, German and Italian annually, during a two-week period.
But this, in turn, creates huge difficulties for schools who must cope without these teachers. Consequently, 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.
It is hoped under the new system schools will be more prepared to release teachers when the schools are closed for tuition.
With the current system at breaking point, the working party, comprising all the education partners, has been examining ways of improving matters. Closure of the schools is now the most favoured option, said sources yesterday.
Mr Martin Hanevy, principal officer of the Department's exam branch, who chairs the working party, stressed last night that no final decision had been made and the Department had an open mind about all options. The members of the committee are currently consulting with their organisations.
Ideally, the Department would like to see teachers not involved in orals or practicals taking part in school planning, parent/teacher meetings and other duties - even when the school is closed. The dedicated week over Easter next year will also be used for practicals in a range of subjects, including construction studies, engineering, woodwork or metal work.
The practical work included in the Leaving Certificate Applied programme is also likely to be included in the plan.
The Department of Education hopes to expand the range of subjects with a practical or oral component, especially science subjects such as chemistry and physics in the coming years. The Republic is one of the few Western education system which does not offer a practical element in these subjects.