As 132,000 students begin their Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations today, a teachers' union has expressed concern at the lack of consistency in the grades awarded in certificate exams.
The Teachers Union of Ireland president, Ms Alice Prendergast, said there was "a growing discrepancy between grades at Junior and Leaving Certificate" and urged "greater continuity between the two to arrest this trend."
The TUI's education officer, Mr Billy Fitzpatrick, pointed to National Council for Certification and Assessment (NCCA) reports in the early 1990s which showed an unusually high percentage of A grades in some Leaving Certificate subjects - like Spanish and applied mathematics - and an unusually low percentage of A grades in other subjects, such as English, engineering, art, and business organisation.
NCCA sources confirmed this was still broadly the situation. A 1994 NCCA publication criticised the lack of adequate statements about the criteria used to assign grades in the examination system. This, it said, led to "a lack of consistency in grading practices across subjects."
The sources said in Northern Ireland the criteria for awarding public exam grades were published before the exams and were freely available to teachers and parents. In the Republic they have been worked out after exams and made available to examiners only.
A Department spokesman said the marking scheme would be available to teachers and parents in late August, and would make clear the criteria used in awarding grades.
The Leaving Certificate examinations will begin this morning and end on June 26th. The Junior Certificate will also start today and end on June 24th.
As usual, the three staple Leaving Certificate subjects will be taken by the most candidates: 63,361 will take maths, 62,439 English and 59,080 Irish. Nearly 38,000 will take French; over 30,000 geography and biology; and nearly 25,000 business organisation and home economics. History continues its rapid decline of the past decade: fewer than 16,000 will take it this year.
In 1995 over 52,400 out of 59,150 candidates received a minimum of five D3 grades at any level, while just over 7,400 received six C3 grades or better on higher level papers. Last year these figures had risen to 53,450 and over 8,900 out of 59,050 candidates. This year's Leaving Certificate examination will see a historic step towards transparent marking, with all students being given the right to see their corrected papers after they receive the provisional results on August 19th.