Exam schedule: Hanafin could have done better

WHILE I agree with Sarah Egan (Letters, December 12) that the new Leaving Cert timetable will be an improvement for many students, it is clear that the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, “could have done better”.

In the past, the exams had to be completed within two-and-a-half weeks as many people were also sitting the now defunct matriculation exams.

The supposed rationale for squashing it all into two-and-a-half weeks now is to allow all the papers to be corrected by August.

However, many subjects with low numbers could easily be corrected in a much shorter timeframe. At the very least, if the minister’s aim was to spread out the workload, she should have moved one of the more widely sat subjects — such as maths — into the third week thus ensuring that basically everyone had at least four days without exams (two weekends).

Under the current system many students will continue to sit all their subjects in the first 10 days. As I know from bitter personal experience, and from that of others, such an intense burst of activity over a short period risks the long-term health of some vulnerable groups, such as those with ME.

Tom Kindlon

Information Officer

Irish ME/CFS Association

PO Box 3075

Dublin 2