The Minister for Education has announced the appointment of six examination commissioners who will serve as a final appeals body in Leaving and Junior Certificate exams.
The commissioners are the former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Seamus Pairceir; the former director of the National Library, Ms Pat Donlon; the former general secretary of the Garda Representative Association, Mr Jack Marrinan; the former deputy secretary of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, Ms Ita Meehan; the former director of the Labour Relations Commission's advisory service, Mr Sean Healy; and the former director of establishments in the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Tom Mulrooney.
The Minister, Mr Martin, emphasised that the six exam commissioners would operate independently of the Department of Education. They would have the power to request all documentation in relation to an appeal in order to check that procedures were properly carried out.
While the commissioners would not be involved in rechecking exams themselves, their role would be to provide assurances to all candidates that their appeals were being dealt with fairly.
About 10,000 rechecks are requested annually and it is anticipated that a small number of these will now be further appealed to the independent commissioners. The addition of this new layer to the appeals system was first announced by the last Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, in May.
The commissioners will be a last resort. All appeals will first go to an appeals examiner, different from the original examiner, who will completely remark a student's work. If he or she gives the student's paper a lower grade than the original examiner, the original grade will stand. If he or she gives it a higher grade, the final decision on the grade awarded will rest with the chief examiner for the subject. Only after this process is completed can a student who is still dissatisfied appeal to the new independent commissioners.
If a student wants to appeal a result initially, he or she must do so through the school principal. Appeal applications must be with the Department of Education by next Wednesday, August 27th. Results of the appeals will be with schools on October 1st.
The president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, Ms Alice Prendergast, welcomed the announcement of the exam appeals commissioners, saying that their appointment would highlight the high quality of marking at present and take some of the stress off examiners. "The responsible and professional approach by examiners is demonstrated by the very small changes that currently result from appeals," she said.