Minister to consider letting students in crisis sit exam later

MINISTER OF State for Education Ciarán Cannon indicated he would consider allowing young people experiencing trauma to sit State examinations after the appointed time.

He was replying to Cork East Fine Gael TD David Stanton, who said that fewer than 1 per cent of the 57,000 Leaving Cert students were in a “crisis” situation.

Those were students, he said, who had either suffered a bereavement, had a serious accident or were seriously ill, which prevented them from sitting one or a number of subjects. “The suggestion is quite simple – that within four to six weeks of not being able to sit the examination for one of these reasons, these students would be facilitated to sit the examination.”

Mr Stanton added that students would not be resitting the examination because they would not have sat for it in the first instance.

Mr Cannon said he would be more than willing to engage further with Mr Stanton on the matter. However, the nature of the Irish exam system imposed constraints on the degree to which experiences of individual candidates could be accommodated.

“The issue of repeat examinations was considered prior to the State Examinations Commission established by the Department of Education and Skills.

“It was concluded that the constraints inherent in a terminal and externally examined system would result in significant difficulties in respect of the provision of repeat examinations.”

Mr Cannon said the constraints derived from the length of the school year, the time required to hold exams, providing adequate time for the preparation of marking schemes for repeat exam papers, and arranging for the briefing of examiners.

Mr Stanton recalled he had first raised the issue in March 1999. He was reminded of it because of the case of a young man, a Leaving Cert student, who was quite ill and might not be able to sit two papers on the same day.

Mr Stanton, a former teacher, said a back-up paper was available for each subject. “All the logistical reasons against doing this can be countered.”

Mr Cannon said each year arrangements were made to cater for a range of personal emergencies. “These include alterations to the standard examination timetable and special sittings in venues such as hospitals.”