Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Context is everything and the overall examinations infrastructure in Ireland stands up to international scrutiny in terms of the level of educational attainment, etc. I acknowledge the validity of the points made by the Deputies that the number of errors in the examinations is a cause for concern. The State Examinations Commission has expressed its regret for the errors made. In response to Deputy Anthony Lawlor, I have a delegated function as Minister of State and have responsibility for the project maths curriculum, for example. As such, one could say the Deputy is addressing the line Minister in relation to this issue. I take the point he is making which is important.

As we are in the midst of the examinations process, it is important to reassure pupils who went through this issue yesterday that the errors will be taken into account in the marking scheme. The State Examinations Commission sets the papers in an independent process, which is very much at arm's length from the Department. Issues arose yesterday, however, for which there must be a degree of accountability to the parent Department in the resolution of such issues into the future. As the Deputies said, what we must do now is ensure we get pupils through the rest of their examinationss. We must ensure the remaining examination papers are robustly checked to avoid errors and that there is a reporting mechanism and a degree of accountability by the State Examinations Commission to the Department about what occurred in the papers referred to by the Deputies.

From a logistical point of view, in a typical year the examinations involve over 116,500 candidates in over 4,900 main examination centres and 10,000 special centres, over 250 test instruments, 90 curricular and 15 non-curricular subjects, over 6,000 examiners, 3 million individual exam papers comprising over 34 million pages and just under 2 million test items. Notwithstanding that, errors still took place. If we acknowledge the errors took place, all we must do is ensure there is a degree of accountability. There must be accountability for why the errors took place and the reparations in terms of how we ensure it does not happen again.

I do not agree with the analysis that we should sack members of the State Examinations Commission, which has been an independent agency since 2003. I strongly believe there should be full accountability in a transparent way with regard to what happened to the papers. I am confident we will get the answers to the questions in due course. While the leaving certificate and junior certificate are ongoing, we should ensure students and parents are assured and remain confident the State Examinations Commission will take into account the errors made. The errors will be recorded and reflected in the marking scheme and no one will be at a disadvantage as a result of the errors. From the initial statement of the State Examinations Commission, I am confident that will take place.

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