Civics teachers cast lot against e-voting questions

ELECTRONIC voting might not have seen the light at the polls but Junior Cert students had to write plenty about it in their Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) exam.

The picture sheet accompanying the common level paper featured a photo of someone pressing a button on a voting machine the No button, interestingly.

While students may have learned about the topic, teachers felt it was wrongly placed given that electronic voting was shelved.

"I imagine the paper was set before the Government decided to review its plans," said TUI CSPE spokesperson Susan McCabe.

She felt it was a reasonable paper but that there may have been too much emphasis on the democracy section of the syllabus, with questions also relating to the Cabinet and local election campaigns.

Brendan O'Regan of the Association of CSPE Teachers thought there was a good variety of subjects tested but raised doubts about a question asking for the difference between e-voting and "the voting system used up to now".

"With a subject like CSPE, the paper should be right up to date," he said.

Michael Stokes, ASTI's spokesman on the subject, also felt a better effort should have been made on the setting of the e-voting question. He also felt a question asking for explanations of terms such as Dáil Éireann, Bunreacht na hÉireann and Áras an Uachtaráin should have been optional, given the growing number of non-national students.

The first papers to examine the revised Leaving Cert home economics syllabus raised a few eyebrows among teachers. TUI's subject spokeswoman Marian Nugent felt both papers were very long.

"The level of detail required in most answers was higher than expected and students would have been under pressure to finish. On the bright side, the marks on offer for each question are shown and the layout is helpful," she said.

ASTI's home economics spokeswoman Joan Glasheen felt, while the papers were similar to samples, students found the exams quite long. She also said the short questions at higher level were wide-ranging but needed specific answers.

The morning exam session saw most Junior and Leaving Cert candidates sitting Irish paper II.

The higher level Leaving Cert exam was quite tiring, according to ASTI Irish spokesman Robbie Cronin, who felt a question less should be included. However, he described the ordinary level paper as very positive and said hard-working students should do well.

His TUI counterpart Dónal Ó Loinsigh said higher-level students would have required a detailed knowledge of the autobiography A Thig Ná Thit Orm and the play An Triail to answer some questions.

Foundation level Junior Cert Irish was described by TUI's junior cycle spokeswoman Bláithín Ní Liatháin as having no surprises, with the inclusion of a text about Celtic soccer club welcomed by students. She was also pleased with the higher exam, which she said had hard questions but a good choice of letters.

Mr Cronin said the unseen poetry section was fairer than in other years but felt the introduction to the first literary prose extract was too long as students did not have to answer questions on it.