ARTHUR SEALY,
Sir, - As one of the two individual teachers who were asked for comments by The Irish Times in response to the Leaving Cert music exam, I wish to respond to Jackie Hynes's letter (June 26th), written on behalf of the Department of Education and Science.
Olivia Kelly's report of June 22nd used words such as "slated" and "slipshod" (her words, not mine) to reflect my view of the Department's efforts. While my own students were indeed very happy with the actual questions on the composing paper, some of the questions on the listening paper have been described as "unfair" (I refer your readers to Ms Fitzgerald's comments in the same report).
The notes from my conversation with Olivia Kelly after the exam described the listening paper as "manageable, with some demanding elements for the higher achiever". On balance, however, there remain in my mind some problems with the production of the papers. The most serious of these were: (1) the inclusion of an "x" on the listening paper, question four, which had no relevance to the higher level paper but was a direct "copy and paste" job from the corresponding Deane question on the ordinary level paper; (2) the carrying over of the fourth given bar of the melody, question one, onto the second stave; (3) the omission of small circles after roman numerals to denote diminished chords (standard textbook practice).
These were nothing short of "sloppy" and were not of the "required professional standard", as suggested by Ms Hynes. It suggests, simply, that the papers had not been proof-read. One hopes this is a lesson learned for next year, to be added to those already noted by my colleagues in biology, maths and French, among others. - Yours, etc.,
ARTHUR SEALY, Leaving Cert Music Teacher, Walton's New School of Music, Dublin 2.