A chara, - I am at a loss to understand the latest objections to reform of the Leaving Certificate timetable.
It seems that every time reforms are proposed a teachers' union or school management body tries to dismantle the changes. This time it's the TUI that is objecting.
While I appreciate that unions and management have to represent their own interests, surely they should have some regard to the interests of students also.
Having sat the Leaving Cert last June, I took the opportunity to contribute to the consultations on reform of the exam that Minister for Education Mary Hanafin conducted.
It seems that out of all the stakeholders in exam reform, the Minister is the only one who has bothered to ask the people who are actually sitting the exams their thoughts on the process.
In fairness to the TUI, while objecting to the proposals put forward by Ms Hanafin, they have given details of their own proposals for change.
However, given that the aim of the current exam reform process is to reduce the stress faced by students in the high-intensity June timetable that exists at present, some of the TUI's ideas seem bizarre.
For example, they suggest that the time allowed for certain higher-level papers be reduced by 20 minutes.
If TUI leaders think that squeezing the same amount of work into a shorter period of time is going to ease the unreasonable burden faced by students I would love to see how they would cope if they were to sit the exams. - Is mise,
DECLAN HARMON,
Whitethorn Crescent,
Palmerstown,
Dublin.