On the day the Junior Certificate results are published, the Conference of Religious of Ireland has called for students to be assessed more by their own teachers and examined less by externally-marked written examinations.
In a report on inequality in education, CORI's education commission says such school-based assessment to certify skills and abilities is necessary "so that the full range of human talents can be recognised and rewarded".
In an introductory paper, Sister Teresa McCormack and Mr Peter Archer of CORI say the mainstream second-level curriculum is "largely irrelevant to the needs, interests and talents of many disadvantaged students".
This is because of its "very narrow focus on traditional academic subjects at the expense of social, emotional, aesthetic, spiritual and physical development". The exam system maintains this narrowness.
The report also calls for the further development of the Leaving Cert Applied and Leaving Cert Vocational programmes.
Sister McCormack and Mr Archer call for the incorporation of these "alternative" programmes into a unified Leaving Cert, offering the option of academic, vocational and personal/ social areas of study, as soon as possible. If this is not done, they believe these alternative programmes will continue to be "perceived as having lower status".
CORI also calls for "a review of the current practice whereby the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has significant responsibility for what is taught in schools, while the Department of Education and Science retains almost sole responsibility for what is assessed [examinations]".
It urges third-level colleges to introduce a range of admissions procedures outside the standard Leaving Cert and Central Admissions Office routes including, in the short term, special access programmes for disadvantaged students.
More specifically, Sister McCormack and Mr Archer say the current review of the Junior Cycle provides a good opportunity to introduce new forms of school-based, teacher-run assessment. "This will involve confronting and dealing with the factors which have impeded the introduction of school-based assessment in the past," they say.
They urge a revised system of examination and assessment should be published within the next year and be in place for students entering second-level schools in September 1999.