Paul Murphy warns students penalised by flawed Leaving Cert oral exams
Paul Murphy criticised the handling of this year's Leaving Cert oral exams, saying many students were marked down through no fault of their own due to examiner and teacher errors. He demanded figures on how many were affected and assurances that no student will lose out because of interviewer mistakes.
Claims of marking errors
The Irish Times reported that one examiner for the German orals marked 78 candidates and estimated that a majority lost marks due to omissions on the part of teachers who conducted the interviews, a point Murphy cited as evidence of unfair treatment.
Deputy's questions and demands
Murphy asked how many students had been affected, whether there would be any cover up as the paper suggested, and sought a clear commitment that students who suffered from genuine mistakes by interviewers would not be penalised.
Parliamentary response
A speaker replied that they were not aware of the situation as described and said the Department would respond to the assertions, adding that replies would be sought on the matter.
Context on assessment fairness
Murphy also challenged a narrow definition of fairness, noting that while the Leaving Cert might be called fair by some, it does not measure the full breadth of a person's ability - and he said it is "absolutely horrendous" to penalise students for interviewer errors.
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Thanks. You quoted in the Irish Times yesterday as saying that the Leaving Cert is fair but doesn't measure the breadth of a person's ability. We could debate that. I think you're using a very narrow definition of what fair and unfair is. But there's another story in the Irish Times yesterday which even on that narrow definition appears to be very unfair for a selected group of students. That's the fact that to quote the paper that significant numbers of Leaving Cert students ended up being marked down in the their oral exams this year through no fault of their own due to shortcomings in the way interviews were conducted according to some examiners. It says that one examiner for the German orals marked 78 candidates and estimates that a majority lost marks due to omissions on the part of teachers who conducted the interviews. The examiner said to penalise students for no fault of their own is not fair nor is it candidate centred. They're absolutely correct. The idea that any student should be penalised as a result of mistakes made by the person doing the interviewing is absolutely horrendous. Can you tell us how many students have been affected by this? Can you confirm that there will not be a cover up of this and what the paper has seems to suggest that there was some attempt of cover up going on? And can you please give a commitment to those students who are affected that no student will lose out due to no fault of their own due to mistakes? Yes, which are presumably, you know, genuine mistakes made by the interviewers, but the students won't pay the price for that. Deputy Murphy in relation, I'm not aware of that given situation in terms of examiners and the assertions that Deputy Murphy has been made. But again, I'm sure the Department will respond to those assertions and we seek replies on those. In terms of...
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