For over 130,000 young Irish people, today is a landmark day with the beginning of the Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations. This morning, thousands of households will be in turmoil, with worried parents and apprehensive students. This year, over 65,000 students are sitting the Leaving Certificate, an examination which remained broadly similar for decades but which has been reshaped in recent years to reflect changing social and educational patterns.
The standard Leaving Certificate is now accompanied by two less academic and more practical examinations - the Leaving Certificate Applied and the Leaving Certificate Vocational programmes. The Leaving Certificate Vocational comprises three linked modules - enterprise education, preparation for work and work experience - as well as five or more Leaving Certificate subjects. This year, over 6,000 students opted for this programme. Department of Education figures show that almost 2,500 candidates have registered for the Leaving Certificate Applied. For these students, two-thirds of the examination is already over, as the programme involves continuous assessment over the year.
The Junior Certificate, the successor of the old Intermediate and Group Certificates, is being taken by over 67,000 students. Introduced in 1989 and designed to "extend and deepen the quality of students' educational experience in terms of knowledge, understanding, skills and competencies and to prepare them for further study at senior cycle", the Junior Certificate is currently being reviewed in detail by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. This review covers issues such as the curriculum framework and what should constitute the list of required subjects. The NCCA expects to report to the Minister by December.
However, not all those taking the Leaving Certificate this year are on the threshold of adulthood. Some 4,621 external candidates are taking the examination, many of them mature students who are availing of an opportunity to secure some "second-chance" education. Reflecting the spirit of the age, the marking of Leaving Certificate examinations, which was traditionally shrouded in secrecy, is also becoming more open and accountable. The Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, has announced a new open policy on marking: Leaving Certificate students will be able to see their written papers after they have been marked, probably in early September. Final appeals still will go to the independent examination commissioners, who were appointed last year and who effectively act as ombudsmen. It is an overdue reform: the Teachers' Union of Ireland is by no means the first to express concern about the inconsistency in the grades awarded in certificate examinations and the apparent discrepancy between grades in the Junior and Leaving examinations.
There is, however, one unresolved difficulty before Mr Martin's new initiative takes effect: regrettably, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland is refusing to co-operate with the return of corrected examination papers to students which it says will disrupt school life at the beginning of the autumn term. It is to be hoped that this impasse can be removed to allow for the smooth introduction of the Minister's new, more transparent policy.