Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 497: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the steps he will take to ensure that undue pressure is not put on leaving certificate students who have to sit, in some instances, three exams on the one day; if his attention has been drawn to the number of such students involved in such situation; and if special consideration will be given to those affected. [24609/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations including the publication of the timetable for the oral, practical and written examinations.

The leaving certificate examination timetable is developed and finalised each year following extensive consultation with all of the education partners involved, including representatives of school management bodies, teacher groups and parents. The timetable for the leaving certificate examination reflects several important considerations including the length of the school year, which limits to 13 days the time available for the conduct of the written tests in June. The written examinations take place over 13 days in June each year, during which period 49 individual leaving certificate subjects are tested, three of which encompass double exam question papers (Irish, English and Mathematics). The 13 days are in turn divided into two sessions per day, morning and afternoon, providing a total of 26 examination sessions to accommodate the 52 examination papers in question.

In these circumstances the Commission's approach of scheduling the most populous subjects, that is, those taken by large numbers of candidates in comparison to other subjects, at the start is designed to allow candidates both a wide curriculum choice and to provide that the potential for situations, where candidates have to sit examinations in three subjects on one day is minimised to the greatest extent possible.

In the interests of candidates every consideration is, of course, given to arranging that the potential for such situations is minimised and the commission is mindful of emerging and changing patterns of subject selection by examination candidates in developing and finalising the timetable for the written examinations each June. However, given the timeframe in which the written examinations are required to be held, the number and duration of the examinations, and the wide subject choices available to candidates it is not possible to avoid a situation where some subjects, are timetabled concurrently.

In 2009 this situation arose in the case of some 100 candidates out of the total of more than 55,000 candidates. In these cases a balance must be found between protecting the integrity of the examination, which entails inter alia all candidates nationally sitting their examinations at the same time, and allowing the candidate to have access to a state examination within the prescribed examination period. Appropriate arrangements are made, therefore, in consultation with the school authorities for the candidate to sit one of the subjects later in the day of the date scheduled for that subject. This involves examination superintendents making arrangements so that the affected candidates do not have any opportunity to access the examination paper taken by the generality of candidates earlier that day.