Sir, - As a teacher with more than 25 years' experience teaching Leaving Certificate History I would like to add my voice to the protests about this year's paper. Surely the whole thrust of a history paper, indeed any examination, is to discover what candidates know. This year's paper was unfair as it failed to ask questions about mainstream topics. It seemed to me to be designed to catch candidates out, to discover what they did not know, rather than what they knew.
In my view this paper was unfair and this should be taken into account when correcting it. I also feel that teachers and students should get an explanation from the Department of Education. - Yours, etc., Pat Cassidy,
Greenhills College, Walkinstown, Dublin 12.