NO EXAM system is perfect. Especially one involving 130,000 students and 1.2 million exam scripts each year.

In many ways, the Leaving Cert is the victim of its own high standards year after year, it was proved a tough but fair assessor of students' academic performance, with little complaint about its operation.

But as the system has grown, it has also become more complex. Numbers are constantly increasing, but so also is the amount of non written work being assessed each year. In most subjects, marks are now awarded for practical work, projects, orals or aurals, as well as the end of year written test.

And therein lies the problem. The co-ordination of all these practical assessments has put incredible strains on the education system. Holding the orals during term time has disrupted the school year. The question of whether teachers should assess their own pupils has convulsed the unions. And finally, there is the problem of sending thousands of samples of practical work to the Department of Education.

Even before the latest debacle, this paper was among those pointing out the absurdity of filling vast warehouses in Athlone with tens of thousands of often bulky pieces of art.

The schools went to great expense to forward their students' work, and even greater expense was incurred when large teams of examiners descended on Athlone to carry out the marking process.

The blunders of the past year would seem to indicate the need for in school assessment of practical work. Niamh Bhreathnach has already decided that the craft work in the art exam should be marked in the schools by external assessors, but this is only a start.

All practical work in the different subjects could more easily be marked in the schools. This process could be further facilitated if teachers were to examine their own students' work, or that of other classes in the same school.

This system has obvious dangers. Favouritism could apply, and the standards of objectivity which is the main strength of the current system could be lost. This is the view of ASTI members who have resisted such a move up to now.

But as the NPC's Nick Killian points out, there are other dangers. "Schools can be broken into as easily as anywhere else, especially during the holiday time. So there's always the risk of students' work being damaged or stolen".

Killian is concerned that the absence of teachers on examining tasks might further erode teaching time.

A related problem has already arisen this year with the assessment of Leaving Cert projects in engineering and construction science. Previously, these were marked by Department examiners during term time, but this year this work will take place in June, when teachers are no longer around.

The TUI says this will cause chaos in schools, and puts the projects at extreme risk of vandalism. The union points out that up to four months will elapse between the time of completion of the projects and their marking in June. The projects, most of them delicate working models, will have to be retained until the appeals period in completed in September.

Thus, it seems there is no easy solution to the task of marrying fairness with security, and objectivity with accuracy, in the exam system.