Does it really have to be this way?

THE stress and turmoil surrounding this month's exam period highlights once again the extraordinary emphasis we in Ireland place on written terminal exams.

For most students, the June exams are make or break. Woe betide the young person who falls ill or fails to perform to expectations for one reason or another. In contrast, many German states offer students the chance to make up for a below par exam performance in an oral test.

In only a minority of Leaving Cert subjects 11 out of 30 are marks awarded for practical work or skills. Only in music and ordinary level engineering and construction studies are more than 50 per cent of the marks available for practical work.

Although the recognition for practical abilities is increasing, the switch to a more rounded assessment system is taking longer than many anticipated.

Aside from a written exam, there are six ways of assessing pupils practicals, external orals, school based orals, aurals, external course work and school based course work. No school based oral assessment is used in the Leaving Cert, but the other options are employed to a modest extent.

In subjects with practical assessment, the proportion of marks awarded for non written work varies from 20 per cent in agricultural economics to 62.5 per cent in art. The other subjects which have practical assessment include Irish, the four modern languages and agricultural science.

Oral Leaving Cert exams in Irish were introduced in the 1960s, but it was only in the mid 1980s that Leaving Cert students began to take oral exams in modern languages. In 1993, aural tests to measure listening skills were introduced.

Now 30 per cent of the marks in the modern languages are awarded for the orals and aurals, usually held in March or April. From next year, this is to be increased to 45 per cent. There is also talk but only talk, so far of introducing an oral in English, amid concern about falling standards of verbal communication.

"In international terms, there is no doubt that we are still far too reliant on written exams. There is no point in having a greater practical element in the various courses unless these new skills are properly assessed," says Albert O Ceallaigh, chief executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).

This emphasis remains mainly for bureaucratic and logistical reasons. It's hard enough to organise written exams for more than 130,000 Junior Cert and Leaving Cert students without further complicating matters by introducing new modes of assessment.

Orals, aurals and other forms of practical assessment are cumbersome and costly to operate. They place enormous strains on the already crowded school calendar and on teachers' willingness to work outside the school term.

"The more modes of assessment you use, the more organisational problems arise. The case for more practical assessment is strong, but the system has to remain valid and reliable," says John White, assistant general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland.

Two years ago, a ferocious row between the unions, school managers and the Department of Education nearly stopped the practical assessment of a number of Junior Cert subjects. This experience has left all sides chastened and determined to ensure than further changes are planned and signalled well in advance.

The education system has to avoid "innovation overload", White says. This happens when too many new programmes or reforms are introduced in the one year. The problems that can arise have been amply illustrated of late. The fiasco over the marking of last year's art exam and the recent loss of engineering practical work were both related to the assessment of practical work and its safe delivery to the Department's exams branch.

Assessing students in school might seem like the answer, but this raises other problems. ASTI members have professional objections to marking their own students, so external examiners are needed. This involves considerable extra cost, including travel.

The Department has introduced arrangements for marking Leaving Cert engineering and construction studies work in schools. However, Tony Deffely of the Teachers' Union of Ireland says this could lead to "potentially disastrous" situations.

"Sophisticated projects in working order are to be left in schools over summer to await marking," he says. The projects will have to be set up and then minded in the schools until the deadline for re-checks passes in September.

In spite of all these difficulties, the Department has plans to introduce more practical assessment. The NCCA last week recommended to the Minister that the lab work of science students be assessed as part of physics and chemistry exams.