A chara, - All of us will soon be addled in the head from listening to claims and counterclaims from the ASTI and from An Roinn Oideachais. I do think the following short extract from The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams is relevant in the present situation. Adams may indeed have had the teaching profession in mind when he wrote:
"The best jobs are those that have results that cannot be measured. Stay away from jobs in which your value can be measured in quantity and timeliness. You can exaggerate your impact on quality much more easily than you can exaggerate your impact on quantity."
Might I offer one crumb of comfort to Dr. Woods with regard to the running and correction of the 2001 Junior and Leaving Certificates? In his book, The Time Of My Life, the former MP Denis Healey makes the following comment:
"The experts had all assured us that it was so difficult to navigate a ship through the Suez Canal that only a pilot trained by the Suez Canal Company could do the job. In the event a scratch team of pilots assembled by Nasser did the job to perfection without any training at all. The Suez Canal Pilot Syndrome always enters my head nowadays when I am told that some group of experts has a special skill which no one else can replace." - Is mise,
Orla Ni Bhroin, Gibbonstown, An Muileann Cearr, Co na hIarmhi.