Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When the system is completed and students take between eight and ten subjects, the examinations on those ultimately will be marked by the teachers in question. Those examinations will account for 60% of the marks for a particular subject and the balance of 40% will be made up from project work the students do in second and third years. The schools and the subject teachers will be sent templates and examples of what standards to expect so that they can look at the work of a weak student, an average student and a good student. There is much experience in the Department in this regard.

Regarding their overall results in the examinations, schools will be notified subject by subject. While it is still evolving, this is the intention. Schools will be notified, after the examinations and after the results have been collected, collated and examined, of an average performance, a good performance and a poor performance. For example, they will be notified of the spectrum in history and whether the school was either above or below a particular level in its marking. It will evolve so that they will know what is the national norm, what the median variation could be and whether they fit within that spectrum. If that raises issues, then there would be discussions with the inspectors.

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