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LC Students given 1hr notice for Oral exam

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    #2
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,131 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    They got more than an hour's notice of the whole thing. They knew it was that week, but it was brought forward.
    Very unusual that this would happen without the school agreeing to it.

    Something rum about the whole story (as usual).

    Examiner gets list of schools.
    Examiner decides in which order they will do them.
    Examiner contacts the schools in good time to let them know.

    The letter schools get sent allows for times to be changed, but while I could see an Examiner being finished early in one school on (say) a Monday morning and then heading to the 'Tuesday' school on Monday afternoon, there isn't any incentive to do so and the upset it causes (as seen in the article) is not worth it.

    'The Department' (who have nothing to do with exams, which are run by the SEC) would have no reason to change the day.

    I wonder was there a funeral or something the Examiner had to get to that caused this? It's very unusual and the SEC always has a panel of emergency Examiners they can send out in the event of an incident like a funeral/accident/illness etc..


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    #3
    r93kaey5p2izun
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    I find this quite incredible tbh and wonder about the full story behind the scenes. If this were to happen in my former school it's quite likely a significant number just wouldn't be there at such short notice. What if they had all been off on a trip?? The school must surely have agreed to the change and if so then I think it's very bad form. It's one thing to have orals/practicals scheduled over several days and have people bumped up or down the running order or have it run ahead of or behind schedule, with everyone on notice they could be done at any stage over the agreed days. But to change the date entirely with an hour's notice is unacceptable whatever the cause I think.


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    #4
    mirrorwall14
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,751 ✭✭✭mirrorwall14


    I always warn my students (music) that it could be the day before if the previous school is finished fast. Like if the previous school ended up doing loads of group practicals it could half the time needed so if the examiner was under pressure they could start. Similarly if our exams are due to run over two days they are all to assume they are in the first because who will end up at the cross over point is unknown.

    Lastly you don’t get the actual day until the examiner rings which is usually only about 4 weeks in advance so I really doubt they knew for months it was on Tuesday?


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    #5
    evolving_doors
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    mirrorwall14 wrote: »
    I always warn my students (music) that it could be the day before if the previous school is finished fast. Like if the previous school ended up doing loads of group practicals it could half the time needed so if the examiner was under pressure they could start. Similarly if our exams are due to run over two days they are all to assume they are in the first because who will end up at the cross over point is unknown.

    Lastly you don’t get the actual day until the examiner rings which is usually only about 4 weeks in advance so I really doubt they knew for months it was on Tuesday?

    Going by the article it seems they were notified unexpectedly that it would be..... after lunch!


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    #6
    mirrorwall14
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,751 ✭✭✭mirrorwall14


    evolving_doors wrote: »
    Going by the article it seems they were notified unexpectedly that it would be..... after lunch!

    Tbh I think that’s probably lax on the schools part rather than the dept!


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    #7
    evolving_doors
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    mirrorwall14 wrote: »
    Tbh I think that’s probably lax on the schools part rather than the dept!

    How so? Do you reckon they should have told the students that the date was Tuesday , but could be changed to Monday at the last minute.


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    #8
    mirrorwall14
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,751 ✭✭✭mirrorwall14


    evolving_doors wrote: »
    How so? Do you reckon they should have told the students that the date was Tuesday , but could be changed to Monday at the last minute.

    Again just basing it off my experience with music (I have been appointed an examiner before too), if there is any chance of finishing at lunchtime in a school then the next school would have been warned along the lines of ‘we expect to be with you Tuesday morning unless Monday runs short and finishes at lunchtime’. Now maybe it was an examiner who didn’t let the school know that was the plan but it seems unlikely that they’d have just turned up Monday afternoon without any warning to the school whatsoever and that’s not what we’d be advised to do at conference at all


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    #9
    byhookorbycrook
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 12,481 Mod ✭✭✭✭byhookorbycrook


    “ In hysterics?” Not everyone was going to be done in that hour . It was moved forward a half day , not 3 months .


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    #10
    TheDriver
    Registered Users Posts: 12,412 ✭✭✭✭TheDriver


    Definitely more to this story. Was the Principal part of the agreement? Did examiner chance their luck? Was there circumstances that SEC weren't told about?


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    #11
    evolving_doors
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    byhookorbycrook wrote: »
    “ In hysterics?” Not everyone was going to be done in that hour . It was moved forward a half day , not 3 months .

    But still even if it were a couple of students affected it's unfair to them. The date given should be the date. Even if the school/SEC/teacher/examiner is at fault the students were very much caught on the hop. That's the first time I've ever heard of a change of date and time to 1 hours time.
    There's no way a college would get away with that at 3rd level... I think because it was students the organisers thought that 'the grown ups have sorted it all out the kids will just have to bite the bullet'.

    If I knew then what I know now I would have rallied my classmates and outright refused.... whilst contacting parents, media....Joe Duffy at the same time.


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    #12
    evolving_doors
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    TheDriver wrote: »
    Definitely more to this story. Was the Principal part of the agreement? Did examiner chance their luck? Was there circumstances that SEC weren't told about?

    Ya I agree there's a lot not being revealed. I still can't see any justification for putting the students at such a disadvantage though.


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