Saturday exam plan criticised by teachers

PLANS by Education Minister Mary Hanafin to hold the first written Leaving Certificate exam on a Saturday in May, from next year, are facing opposition from teachers it emerged yesterday.

The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) has called on the minister to go back to the drawing board on reforming the exam timetable in an effort to ease pressure on students.

The first measure she hinted at is asking the State Examinations Commission to sit the first Leaving Certificate English paper on a Saturday during May.

She indicated this preference last month after meetings with a group of students who sat the exam this summer, and discussions with the commission. However, no announcement is expected to be made until after schools reopen in September.

But echoing concerns already voiced by some second-level school management bodies, TUI president Tim O’Meara said any such move would pose considerable problems for schools. The union believes spreading more popular subjects throughout the June exam timetable would be a better move to reduce the unacceptable stress the exams cause many young people.

“To timetable English on a Saturday morning in May would be fraught with practical and educational difficulties. Few schools have access to large rooms away from the main school block, or the necessary additional furniture and other facilities, which would present major practical implications for the normal running of the school,” said Mr O’Meara.

He said there are also requirements for students with special needs, including the provision of separate exam centres for some candidates, which demands that general classrooms be set aside.

“The inevitable result is that, to prepare for the exams on Saturdays during May, schools would have to close the doors to other year groups on the Friday, reducing the number of overall teaching days available to students,” said Mr O’Meara.

He added that moving an exam to May would undermine the Leaving Certificate revision strategy used by most teachers in the final weeks of class contact, allowing students to return with the teacher to difficult areas of the curriculum.

However, the union is not against the scheduling of exams on Saturdays and said it could be done after the first week of time-tabled papers. This, Mr O’Meara said, would provide possibilities for fewer exams to be scheduled in the first two or three days, reducing the undue burden that falls on students in the early days of the Leaving Certificate.

The TUI also proposed:

removing the extra 20 minutes of writing made available for some subjects, except for students with special needs.

ensuring subjects in the first three or four days are a mix of those that require significant writing, such as English, and that demand much less writing, such as technical drawing.

mixing popular and less common subjects each day of the first and second week.

This has been acknowledged by Ms Hanafin as a possible solution to some of the pressure, with popular subjects currently paired on the same day, such as French with biology, and business with history during the second week of exams.