The Department of Education is to be commended for the open and transparent way in which it has dealt with public concern about the inconsistencies in marking the Honours English Leaving Certificate exam. It admitted frankly yesterday that serious errors had been made. Some 220 scripts from one individual examiner were completely reworked and 52 papers were upgraded by 15 per cent or more. In an unprecedented move, the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, also published upgrades for students who had not actually appealed for a recheck after errors came to light during a general review of the corrected examination papers. All of this may help to assuage the specific concerns of some students and their parents but it will scarcely do much to inspire public confidence in the examination system. This confidence has already been dented by the well-publicised problems with the 1995 Art exam and there appears to be increasing concern about inconsistencies in the marking procedure.
In fairness, the Department has moved to give students, parents and teachers far more detailed information about the marking and appeals systems. But doubts about the appeals mechanism persist, notwithstanding a Price Waterhouse review earlier this year which concluded that it was "essentially sound". It is abundantly clear that the existing rechecking system failed those students in Athlone and it is to be hoped that the comprehensive review of the marking of this year's English paper, announced by Mr Martin yesterday, will herald more radical change.
But there are also more fundamental questions to be addressed. The correction of the Leaving Certificate Honours English paper is an extremely demanding task, much more challenging, perhaps, than the job of checking Maths or Science papers. Examiners face an arduous workload; each is responsible for no less than 240 exam scripts but the pay, £9.24 per script - half of that after tax and other deductions - offers very poor compensation. It is in the words of one ASTI official "an outrageously unpleasant job, sitting through July with a pile of exam papers". Not surprisingly, the Department has experienced some difficulties in recruiting sufficient examiners and there appears to be little enthusiasm among older and more experienced teachers for the job.
The new Minister, Mr Martin, and the new chief examiner, Mr Eamon Stack, have shown a commendable readiness to clear away some of the cobwebs and to question some traditional practices in Marlborough Street. Their challenge now in the exams sphere is to preserve the integrity of the system by ensuring that those who mark the exams are properly rewarded for the task. The vast majority of students prepare with great diligence and care for their exams. It is imperative that the examiners are motivated to a similarly high standard.