Vol. 539 No. 1
457 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will arrange for students of the leaving certificate and junior certificate who are unable to complete all or any part of their examinations through illness to sit the examinations at a later date; if he has at any time facilitated students to sit these examinations other than at the designated time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18958/01]
Within the limitations of our examination system, every possible effort is made to accommodate candidates who suffer illness, bereavement or other trauma either immediately before or during the examinations. These arrangements, which are put in place at very short notice, can involve alterations to the standard examination timetable and special sittings in venues such as hospitals. The National Educational Psychological Service also assists students and schools in difficult circumstances during the examinations.
There are, however, significant difficulties in relation to the provision of repeat examinations. Such constraints, inherent in a terminal and externally examined examination system, are not imposed by any Minister. They exist as fact and derive from the length of the school year, the time required for holding examinations, arranging for marking conferences, the number of suitably qualified persons available to act as examiners, the necessity to provide ample time for those examiners to conduct the marking to a high standard, and the pressing requirement of having results available to feed into the college entry process which is conducted by the CAO and college admission departments in August each year. Given these constraints, our State examinations currently operate against the tightest of time-scales and to maximum capacity in delivering a high quality product at both junior and leaving certificate levels.
