Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In this week of full disclosure in the Dáil, I want to put on the record that I sat the junior certificate in 1993.

The witnesses are exceptionally welcome to the committee and the Parliament. I compliment them on their very well-formulated submission. They are here to discuss and argue their case. We have met with the Department and the State Examinations Board to tease out the proposals. The nature of the debate has evolved. When we received the petition, it dealt primarily with the time aspect but the witnesses have also focused on the structures. I wholeheartedly agree with them that it is very important for a student to have a structure when approaching an exam, and that is particularly so for the English paper. In my day, there was a very structured paper containing a creative writing section in paper one and questions on poetry and the remainder of the syllabus on paper two. A student knew he or she would have to hit certain time limits when compiling his or her thoughts. Deputy Dara Murphy asked a question regarding whether guidelines would be adequate and the witnesses seemed to suggest they would not. Does the entire paper have to be rethought?