THE Minister for Education yesterday announced further appeals safeguards for the Leaving Certificate.
Independent examination commissioners are to be appointed as a final appeals mechanism. These commissioners will have the power to request all documentation in relation to an appeal and to establish that procedures have been properly carried out. They will not remark the examination.
About 10,000 rechecks are requested annually and it is anticipated a small number of these will be further appealed to the independent commissioners.
The commissioners will be - people of standing - possibly retired judges or revenue commissioners. Their role will be to certify to the student that the Department of Education has done all required of it.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and the Teachers' Union of Ireland have welcomed the establishment of the new appeals process by Ms Breathnach.
The format of the appeals results is being changed to provide students with additional information. The Department will formally confirm to each student that a full remarking has taken place and all the appeal procedures have been followed.
Students will also be informed that all parts of the examination, including practical work, have been marked. This is particularly important in light of the 1995 Leaving Cert exam where more than 50 pieces of artwork were lost.
Barcoding is being introduced this year to track exam work as it goes between schools and the Department's examinations branch. About 130,000 exam related packages will be on the move in June and a database is in place to track their movements.
In all, more than 800,000 components - written papers, oral, aural and practical work - will be examined, leading to the award of 400,000 grades in 31 subjects.
An information booklet, outlining the running of the Leaving Cert exam, will be circulated to each of the 65,000 or so students sitting this year's exam. The booklet, which was also welcomed by both teachers' unions, contains information on the preparation, supervision and marking of exams.
A further booklet on the appeals process will be circulated soon by the Department. The Leaving results will be delivered to schools on Tuesday, August 19th. Applications for appeals must be made by Wednesday. August 27th.