Leaving Cert oral exams to be held during Easter holidays, despite opposition from students and teachers

The Leaving Cert oral exams will be held during the Easter holidays next year despite opposition from students’ representatives and teachers’ unions.

The exams will be held during the first week of the Easter holiday period from Saturday 23th, March to Thursday 28th, March inclusive.

Before the pandemic, oral language exams were held during school time either before or after the school Easter holidays, depending on how early or late Easter fell.

However, exam authorities moved the orals to the holiday period in 2022 for the first time due to acute shortages in sourcing substitute cover in the midst of the pandemic.

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Minister Norma Foley said the holding of oral exams during the Easter holidays next year, instead of during term time, will minimise disruption to teaching and learning in schools and, in particular, candidates preparing for their exams.

“I am very conscious of the huge commitment of teachers to undertake the critical work of examining and as Minister I want to thank teachers for their engagement in this work every year,” she said.

However, students’ and teachers’ representatives have called for the oral exams to revert to normal term-time in order to give up to 60,000 Leaving Cert candidates a “much-needed break”.

Rather than alleviating pressure, the Irish Second Level Students’ Union (ISSU) says holding the exams during the holidays has increased pressure on candidates, particularly those facing more than one oral exam within a shorter time-frame than used to be the case.

The union says students are also missing out missing out on supports from teachers who might normally be available during the regular school day which, it maintains, can make it an overwhelming experience for some.

Teachers’ unions and the Irish language teachers’ subject association also endorsed these calls, while a Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) survey of its members found that 84 per cent of respondents agreed with a move back to pre-pandemic norms.

Many school managers and principals, however, are understood to have strongly supported keeping oral exams during the holiday period as it is much less disruptive to students’ education.

It means schools do not have to source hard-to-find substitute teachers to fill in for staff who opt to conduct the oral exams in other schools.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) said recently it was currently conducting an “extensive evaluation” to fully assess the impact of holding the oral examinations at Easter.

As part of this, it engaged the University of Galway to undertake research to explore parent, student, teacher, examiner and school leadership opinions about the timing of the exams n 2024.

The Department of Education said the SEC found in its preliminary evaluation that there were some challenges with the holding of oral exams during the holidays due to the fact that students did not have access to normal term-time school support structures, such as their teachers.

“In response, schools are being given additional funding for the Leaving Certificate oral examinations in 2024 to appoint a teacher to provide pastoral support to candidates, and ensure their attendance for the exam during the Easter holidays,” the department said, in a statement.

“This is being funded by giving schools an additional five Examination Aide days on top of the existing eight to ten examination aide days (depending on student numbers) which were provided last year.” School authorities have also been asked to be cognisant of demands on individual candidates who have oral exams in more than one language by avoiding scheduling multiple tests on one day to the greatest degree possible

The SEC is to provide further advice on the timing of the Leaving Cert oral exam in the future  following the completion of the wider evaluation process.

It is understood this research will continue and will feed into the timing of oral exams in 2025 onwards.

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