The Minister for Education has said the option for students to view all their marked Leaving Certificate scripts for the first time this year made the exam "one of the most open examination systems in the world". The Leaving Cert. results will be in schools this morning.
Mr Martin said the option, which was introduced for some subjects last year, had now been extended to all subjects. Candidates would be able to view their marked exam scripts by arrangement with their schools on September 3rd and 4th.
He also noted that the alternative Leaving Certificate programmes - Leaving Certificate Applied and Leaving Certificate Vocational - now accounted for almost 20 per cent of students sitting the exam. The 2,100 young people sitting the Leaving Certificate Applied in June represented an increase of around 25 per cent over last year.
The Minister particularly welcomed the take-up of information technology and modern languages in the LCA.
He said this year's results were "quite consistent with those of previous years in most subjects including English, Irish, mathematics, history, geography, home economics and chemistry". He said the recently-announced £15 million programme to promote physics and chemistry should result in an increase in the take-up of science subjects in the next few years.
The Minister of State with responsibility for adult education, Mr Willie O'Dea, advised mature and second-chance students receiving their results to seek "sound guidance and advice" once they got them.
He intended "shortly" to put in place a comprehensive adult guidance system, but in the meantime mature students should use the special help-line set up by the National Parents Council (post primary).
Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, the new president of the secondary teachers' union, ASTI, welcomed Mr Martin's recent remarks "regarding the integrity of the Leaving Certificate and its acceptance, both nationally and internationally".
She criticised IBEC for suggesting that new Leaving Certificate assessment methods would have an impact on the drop-out rate at third level. A 1997 OECD report had shown that Irish third-level non-completion rates were either comparable to or lower than those reported in other European countries.
The president of the TUI, Mr Joe Carolan, congratulated students receiving results from the "innovative" Leaving Certificate Applied and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme.
He said the traditional Leaving Cert could learn much from the Leaving Certificate Applied with its use of a wide range of projects, practicals and alternative assessment systems.