Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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986. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will confirm if there is a policy in place whereby a definite percentage of students sitting each leaving certificate subject will fail every year; if so, if this is a set figure, or does it change according to the year in question; if this decision is made before the paper is given to the students; her views that this policy discourages students from taking particular subjects, such as honours mathematics, which will have a negative impact on project mathematics; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38083/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Standards are established for new syllabuses in Ireland in advance of examining. The approach taken is sometimes described as a "college of professionals" approach. In the first instance, a group of people who are deemed to have an expert knowledge of what the students in the target audience ought to be able to achieve in the subject concerned reach a consensus regarding the content standards of the syllabus. This is achieved through the various committees in the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). Following on this, these content standards are then put into effect as a set of performance standards by the State Examinations Commission (SEC). Once these performance standards have been tested, reviewed and fully established, the SEC, in accordance with its Establishment Order, then endeavours to ensure that the standards remain consistent over time.

As part of its remit the SEC is charged with maintaining standards year on year and it endeavours to achieve this by the processes it has in place for the preparation of examination papers and other test items, and by the quality assurance procedures it implements at the examining and appeal stages of the state examinations.

All of the SEC's examinations are prepared in accordance with the principles outlined in the document, The Preparation of Test Items – Principles and Protocol, available on its website at www.examinations.ie. Similarly, all examinations are assessed in accordance with the key assessment principles of validity and reliability.

In order to maintain standards, the Chief Examiner for each examination takes all necessary steps to ensure that the examination paper, the marking scheme and its application combine to ensure that established standard are maintained.

Standards of achievement of large cohorts of students do not radically change in the space of a year. A certain amount of variation from year to year may happen, and a gradual change in the pattern of grades may occur over time, provided the subject experts involved are satisfied that it reflects real changes in achievement. Furthermore, syllabus change and other deliberate interventions may impact on grade patterns, as may changes to the size or composition of the cohort.

The examinations are marked by examiners, (generally experienced teachers in the subject), who work under the overall direction and management of the Chief Examiner for the subject. Examiners normally mark scripts from a number of schools. Examiners do not know either the region or the schools from which the papers they mark are drawn. They have sight only of examination centre numbers and candidate numbers, thus maintaining the anonymity of the system. There are no 'quotas' applied to the number of grades, including E, F and NG, coming from any examination centre or indeed from the overall batch of scripts allocated to any examiner or the cohort generally.

The marking process is overseen by a team consisting of the Chief Examiner, a Chief Advising Examiner and a number of Advising Examiners, who monitor and advise the examiners in their work. The Chief Examiner and the advisory team test the draft marking scheme at a two day pre-conference. During the pre-conference, the draft marking scheme is also considered in the light of commentary and correspondence from teachers, professional bodies and other interested parties, before being applied to exemplars of candidates' work.

All examiners attend at a training conference prior to commencing the marking. The training process involves the use of exemplars of candidates' work both for standardising purposes and for purposes of training examiners in the consistent application of the marking scheme. Random sampling is conducted in the early stages of the marking which serves to assist in the appropriate adjustment, clarification and refinement of the marking scheme as well as an initial quality assurance on the work of examiners. If the grade distribution differs substantially from the established norm, this is interrogated to determine the underlying factors and where appropriate adjustments may be made to the marking scheme before the full marking process executes. Once the marking scheme has been finalised, the marking proceeds, subject to rigorous ongoing monitoring of the process.

Ongoing and systematic monitoring is a critical element of the marking process. The monitoring is designed to enable each examiner to apply the agreed marking scheme consistently and accurately to all scripts. A minimum of 5% of the scripts, marked by each examiner, is monitored by Advising Examiners during the course of the marking. As a consequence of this examiners who are found to be off-standard are required to remark all scripts that had been marked to that point. This may result in grade changes. Advising Examiners are also available to the examiners for consultation and advice throughout the marking period.

The marking schemes in each Leaving Certificate subject are published shortly after the issue of the examination results and in advance of the viewing of their scripts by candidates. These are issued to all schools and are available to download from the SEC's website. The Junior Certificate marking schemes are published on the website.

A formal appeals process is provided by the State Examinations Commission. It is open to every candidate to appeal the result awarded in any particular subject. The appeals system involves a sophisticated combination of measures. Candidates are provided with the option to view the marked scripts and are also provided with the facility to comment on the marking through a dedicated form. Appealed scripts are re-marked in accordance with the same standard as applied in the initial marking, and the same marking scheme as utilised in the initial marking. Candidates may also view the appealed script after the appeal marking.

Quality assurance measures are in place at each stage of the appeal process to ensure that the marking scheme is applied fairly to the work of each candidate. If a candidate is still dissatisfied with the result after the appeals marking has concluded, he/she has recourse to a review by the Independent Appeals Scrutineers and beyond that to the Ombudsman.