Teachers to oppose holding oral exams at Easter

PLANS to hold oral exams for Leaving and Junior Certificate students during Easter holidays could be jeopardised by teachers opposed to the move.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) annual congress yesterday backed a motion calling for the rejection of any such proposal by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

A group representing teachers, school managers, parents and the Department of Education is considering an SEC proposal that part of the orals be held in the first few days of the two-week Easter break.

The suggestion is that, instead of being held entirely during term time and disrupting school timetables, they could be held during the last three days of the second term and into the first three days of the two-week holiday which is now the same for all second-level schools.

But the emergency motion passed by TUI delegates in Tralee directs their executive to reject any move to introduce examination or assessment of the State exams at Easter.

Bernard Doherty from Co Donegal said the standardised school year introduced in 2004 leaves the door open for exams to be held during Easter holidays.

“But the question arises about who’s going to open the school - the principal, the caretaker or the school secretary - and also what’s the remuneration going to be?” he said.

The congress earlier instructed officials to seek a significant increase in pay and expenses for teachers involved in all oral assessments, exam centre superintendents and those marking papers.

The SEC currently requires around 1,000 teachers to conduct oral exams, usually across a fortnight period before the Easter holidays.

These are mostly for Leaving Certificate students in Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian and other languages.

It is also proposed to examine alternative arrangements for practical exams in subjects such as music and engineering which also take place during term time.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin has also suggested that parts of the written papers in English and Irish might be held earlier in the year to ease the burden on students during the main written exams timetable in June.