Leaving Cert oral exams should continue to be held over Easter despite 'conflicting views'
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Leaving Cert oral exams should continue to be held during the Easter holidays for at least the next three years, despite “conflicting views”, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) has recommended.
The SEC has on Wednesday published its advice to Education Minister Norma Foley on the timing of the oral exams in 2025 and beyond.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, oral exams and music practical exams took place over two weeks either before or after the Easter holidays, depending on when Easter fell in the year, under a visiting external examining model.
In a change to the longstanding arrangement, the examinations were delivered over the Easter holidays for the first time in March 2022.
While this was introduced to avoid further disruption to the school year already disturbed by covid-19, some stakeholders had been calling for a change to the timings for “quite some time”, the SEC notes. It said:
“Over the years, the number of applicants and consequently, the number of examiners available, has been in decline.”
“This can be attributed to a number of factors including the unwillingness of schools to release teachers; the increased workload on those appointed due to examiner shortages; teachers’ desire to provide support to their classes during their own oral examinations; and the remuneration on offer.”
Delivering these tests up to and including 2019 was "extremely challenging" due to the recruitment and retention of examiners, with the SEC reliant on the release of teachers to serve as examiners, which also required to permission from their principal to release them from teaching duties.
"At a system level, school authorities were challenged by the term time delivery given the requirement to release teachers from their normal teaching duties.
In some schools, this led to both exam and non-exam classes not having any language teaching for the duration of the orals.
In its memo to the minister, the SEC notes that teacher unions do not support holding oral exams over the Easter holidays.
“Notwithstanding the oral examining applications numbers in 2023 and 2024, there is a possibility that the unions may give a directive to their members.”
There is also a risk that “sufficient numbers of teachers may not want to give up holiday time to act as examiners” and that there may be potential for higher levels of absences from the orals of they are scheduled at a time when candidates are not attending school.
However, due to uncertainty arising through ongoing teacher supply challenges and the need to schedule further assessments through Senior Cycle reform, the SEC is of the view that orals such remain during the Easter holidays until the 2026/27 school year.
"Maintaining the timing at Easter for the next three years will provide certainty to three cohorts of Leaving Certificate candidates about the timing of their examinations and will deliver stability to the school system in relation to their planning for future years.”