Principals call for oral exams to be held during Easter holidays

PRINCIPALS want Easter holidays extended by a week for students to take oral and practical exams but they remain opposed to Leaving Cert exams on a Saturday in May, a conference heard yesterday.

Their opposition to plans that Education Minister Mary Hanafin hopes to introduce in 2009 were outlined to her at the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals annual conference in Kilkenny.

Ms Hanafin announced changes this week to the mix of subjects in the first few days of written exams in June from next summer but said she wants talks between school managers, teachers’ unions and the State Examinations Commission (about possibly sitting an English paper at an earlier date.

But principals at the country’s 740 second-level schools remain concerned about the staffing implications of opening schools at the weekend and the possible disruption to other students when exam halls have to be set up earlier in the week.

Their concerns have been echoed by the managers of religious-run schools and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

Association president Patricia McDonagh said they want Ms Hanafin to consider their proposals to include an extra week being added to the Easter holidays.

“In this period, all orals, practicals, Leaving Cert Vocational Programmes and Leaving Cert Applied modules could be assessed. We also suggest the possible shortening of exam papers, when you think that university exams are often only two hours long,” she said.

Measures have been sought for a number of years to reduce the impact of orals in Irish and other languages, as well as practicals in technology subjects, home economics, metalwork and others. They disrupt learning time for students as many teachers either give over class time to allow them prepare or others are travelling to other schools as examiners.

“We regret the lack of movement on the orals and practicals by the SEC. The time lost to schools during the orals coupled with time for in-service is crucifying schools at the moment,” said Ms McDonagh.

The TUI opposes any oral exams being held during the Easter holidays and Ms Hanafin has said the transient dates of the holidays make it more difficult to arrange.

The president said principals were pleased with the rescheduling of the written exams announced by Ms Hanafin, designed to ease the burden of heavy writing felt by most students in the first week.

But, she said, the media can also add to pressure around the Leaving Cert as hardly any other country gives as much media hype to its exam system and outcomes. She said they play on parents’ natural concerns.

“Out of all this hype comes our grind culture that so dominates the post-primary education system,” she said. We need to move away from seeing schooling as a race and see it more as a community enterprise in the formation of young people,” said Ms McDonagh.