The Department of Education has agreed that in its continuing review of Leaving Cert exam procedures, it will focus on honours English, the subject of recent concern by parents and teachers. After a meeting with the secondary teachers' union, ASTI, the Department said this review would also examine the number of papers given out to each examiner to mark; the importance of appointing experienced teachers; and the publication of more detailed information on marking procedures in the chief examiner's reports.
The Department also agreed to pay particular attention to monitoring the appeals recheck process in the honours English exam.
At a press conference later, the Department's chief inspector, Mr Eamonn Stack, strongly defended the Leaving Cert marking and appeal system for its fairness, anonymity and integrity.
Last weekend, a group of midlands teachers and parents complained about inconsistencies in marking this year's Leaving Cert in honours English. They demanded a new team of recheck examiners, and urged that before rechecking, all grades given by the original examiners should be removed from exam papers.
Mr Stack said the appeal process had been the subject of a major review by the consultancy group, Price Waterhouse, last January. That review had stressed the importance of the first and second markings of candidates' work being carried out "under a regime designed to ensure that a different set of standards will not apply between the two markings".
The same standardised marking scheme is used both by examiners and recheck examiners, who helped develop it at a two-day conference shortly after the exams. For this reason, Price Waterhouse "saw no viable way to equitably introduce the concept of any marking of candidates' work by a person or body external to the examination system itself".
The consultants had also concluded that there was no disadvantage to a candidate in having the original examiners marks and comments on an exam paper which is being rechecked.
He quoted the consultants' conclusion that this was, in fact, a benefit. "Any difference in marking will cause the appeals examiner to review his/her marks and those of the original marker against the marking scheme before committing to a final judgment on the matter."
The Athlone teacher, Mr Neil Molloy, who is leading the campaign to have an independent rechecking procedure for the English exam, said of this system: "No recheck examiner will be unaware that he or she is changing a mark because the marks given by their colleagues will be on the paper in front of them. In an assessment-based subject like English, this militates further against the chances of unbiased reassessment. Faced with a different `expert' opinion, there is a tendency to reconsider, or opt for compromise."