Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will clarify the legal situation regarding the imposition of school rules during junior and leaving certificate exams; if a student can be refused permission to sit an exam in a hall lent by the school to the State Examinations Board; her views on the imposition of punishment measures for breaking school rules that interfere with a student's ability to sit an exam; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23229/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under SI 373/2003 the State Examinations Commission has operational responsibility for the certificate examinations, including determining procedures in places where examinations are conducted including the supervision of examinations. This function is exercised in collaboration with schools. The normal practice is for the SEC to provide for the holding of examinations in the school where a pupil is attending, or to make alternative arrangements where these are requested for external candidates, pupils of other centres, and pupils for whom a specific accommodation has been requested and is deemed necessary.

In April 1996, the Department issued Best Practice Guidelines to schools concerning the Certificate Examinations. The guidelines stress the importance of the examinations to the students and their future progression, the need for a calm and supportive environment, that pupils are subject to the rules of the school during the examinations and that these rules must have as their main objective the securing of the well-being of students. While the Guidelines refer to situations where the removal/refused admission of a student may arise, a judgement in such cases must consider the well-being of the individual, of the general body of candidates and the integrity of the examination process, and the need for proportionality in response to non compliance with rules. The guidelines stress the exclusion from an examination would be disproportionate in a situation where alternative arrangements were not made for sitting the examination. The Guidelines recommend that students who breach the school's disciplinary code should be allowed sit the examination on the occasion of the first breach, while parents are being contacted. They also provide that subsequent breaches of discipline which are seen as having wider implications for school discipline are dealt with by making alternative arrangements to sit the examination in a neighbouring school.