AS ALMOST 69,000 Junior Certificate students pick up their results today, the future of the exam is coming under increasing scrutiny.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is currently beginning a comprehensive review of the Junior Cert, which was first offered in 1989. At the same time, the aims, implementation and resourcing of the programme is being questioned by many of those involved in education.

Only last year, a prominent school management representative suggested that the exam had outlived its usefulness and might profitably be abolished. While this is unquestionably still a minority view, there is a growing body of opinion which holds that the Junior Cert uses up valuable resources and time which could be employed in other areas.

Ireland is one of the few countries to retain a national exam which is not now, for the vast majority of students, a terminal test of performance. In other Western countries, continuous assessment and/or exams set by the school or region are in operation.

The Junior Cert is, by wide agreement, a significant improvement on its predecessor, the Intermediate Cert. However, some of the most important elements of the new programme for instance, the introduction of short courses and the provision of alternative forms of assessment other than exams have not been introduced, or only patchily.

Disagreement between teachers' unions and the Department of Education over the assessment of practical work has delayed progress in this area. Then, this year, a row blew up over the Minister for Education's proposal to drop history and geography as core subjects. Niamh Bhreathnach's climbdown in the face of fierce criticism will make it harder to introduce short courses, and thereby ease the pressures on an already overcrowded curriculum.

Where progress has been made is in the area of curricular diversity post Junior Cert. As ASTI president John Mulcahy points out, students now have a greater choice of options than ever before, including the Transition Year and the three Leaving Cert streams.

However, Mulcahy maintains that progress is being hindered by a lack of resources. "We call on the Minister to make the resources available to schools so they can actually implement these programmes and offer as wide a choice as possible to young people. For example, at the end of the last school year, only 125 schools were actually offering the Leaving Cert Vocational (LCV) programme. We want it extended to the greatest number of schools."

This year sees the start of the Junior Cert Elementary programme, a similar initiative to the LCV and Leaving Cert Applied programmes, designed to reduce early school leaving.

Sean Mitchell, president of the National Parents' Council (Post Primary), says the new elementary programme will be of benefit to less academic students, by helping to prevent them leaving the system early. "Hopefully, the Department will get the information on that programme out to schools and parents quickly. Parents will begin to get confused with the profusion of new options if more information is not given."

According to Alice Prendergast, president of the TUI, "it is important that the Department of Education makes sufficient personnel, resources and time available to guidance and counselling in order to ensure that students make the right choices."

A FURTHER problem is that the Leaving Cert has not been reformed along the lines originally proposed when the Junior Cert was introduced. As a result, many students are disoriented by the change from a more open learning programme at junior cycle to the more narrowly academic strictures of the Leaving Cert.

For today, though, these longer term concerns about the Junior Cert pale into insignificance when compared to the fears of teachers and parents about another annual bout of drunken rowdiness by celebrating students this evening.

Although the results are coming out earlier this year, the now traditional rite of passage celebrations are likely to recur. Sean Mitchell has appealed to publicans not to serve alcohol to Junior Cert students. He also wants the Department to bring the date of issue of the results further forward - if possible to before September 1st.

"We are also continuing to request that the results are posted out to students homes. This would mean parents are in a better position to monitor celebrations and schools could get their timetable for students going into senior cycle sorted out earlier," he says.

Principals agreed last year not to give the results to students until the afternoon. "Some parents reacted against this, but we thought it was a sensible approach and hope that they will do it again. If they get off early, they head for the nearest pub."

A small minority of publicans flouts the licensing laws and serves drink to minors, Mitchell says. He appeals to staff in off licences not to serve young people without seeking their identity.

Perhaps the best advice for the rest of us contemplating a night out is to follow the counsel given by the Garda when it snows: "If you don't have to make that journey, don't."