THE Price Waterhouse team investigating the debacle of last year's Leaving Certificate art exams has failed to locate the missing pieces of student craftwork.
The consultants' report, which will be circulated to members of the Oireachtas next Tuesday, is not being published because of legal concerns.
It is understood that the Price Waterhouse team will outline what appears to have happened in the case of the missing art projects and make recommendations for procedural changes.
The Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, has already committed herself to implementing the report's recommendations. She has asked the Price Waterhouse team to undertake a further investigation of how the system for appealing Leaving Cert results can be improved and expects to receive recommendations on this in the near future.
The original problem arose when 51 students were not credited for all their artwork in last year's Leaving Cert exam. The omission only came to light when it was pursued by the Ursuline Convent in Sligo.
Many of the students had already sought a re check of their exam papers, and the failure to credit them with marks for the missing art pieces was not discovered during this initial re check. It is for this reason that the Minister is also asking for recommendations on the appeals system.
Apparently, it is not uncommon for some students not to sit all components of an exam: therefore missing marks from one section of the art exam did not necessarily ring alarm bells last year.
The craftwork component of Leaving Cert art will be assessed in schools this year and will therefore not have to be transported to the Department of Education in Athlone.
The report is likely to recommend that schools should be notified if there are no marks registered for any component of an exam, another reform which has already been implemented. This should alert schools and examiners to any possibility of missing projects.