The Minister for Education's radical proposal, which will allow Leaving Certificate students to examine their scripts after they have been marked, must be welcomed. It throws the whole examination process open to scrutiny by students, teachers and parents. In the past, students who were dissatisfied with their results had to appeal on the basis of their own estimate of their performance. Now, they can examine what they have written and make an informed decision. And they will also be given their marks for orals, aurals and practicals for the first time so they can be assured all components were examined. For teachers, this new process should be a valuable learning tool which will allow them to reassess their own teaching methodology. Although, this must be balanced against the danger that teaching may become even more exam-focused.
The exposure of a series of blunders in the marking and examining processes of the Leaving Certificate over the past few years, had led to an erosion of public confidence in this important examination. Last year, a number of measures were put in place to bolster confidence. Independent examination commissioners were appointed as a final court of appeal. A bar-coding system was introduced to track the 125,000 packets which shuttle to and from the Department's examination branch in Athlone. Examination reports were produced on the six revised Leaving Certificate syllabi which were examined for the first time in June, 1997. This latest step in opening up the process should take any remaining mystery out of the workings of the Leaving Certificate.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland has described the process as well-intentioned but unworkable. This year, 65,584 students are entered for the Leaving Certificate and there is a strong possibility that the majority of these will want to review their examination scripts. The Department insists the logistics can be handled and that there will be minimum disruption to schools. It must be acknowledged that in a system with 800,000 individual components including orals, aurals, practicals, projects and written papers, the level of appeals for rechecks is relatively low. In all, 1,364 of the 425,000 grades issued last year were revised upwards. However, it was the perceived reluctance to own up and redress these errors which caused most problems.
In the past, grades could only be revised upwards. Under the new transparent regime, students risk the possibility of being downgraded.
There will now be a two-track appeals system. Students who detect arithmetical errors in the addition of marks can use a fast-track rectification system for which there will be no charge. Other appeals will involve a full remarking with the retention of the standard fee of £25 per subject. This fee, which is refunded if a subject is upgraded, has been criticised as excluding disadvantaged students from a process open to those with sufficient funds. Perhaps the Minister might consider a further improvement to the system and rescind this fee.