Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
The Committee also recommended the establishment of a research project, The Public Examinations
Evaluation Project (PEEP), with the brief of designing examinations that would test higher-level
skills, exploring the potential of the large-scale use of objective tests rather than essay-type
examinations, and involving teachers and school authorities in the assessment of their own pupils.
This was to be accomplished through two subjects, History and Mathematics. An extensive
programme of in-service education on the principles and techniques of assessment was organised
for the teachers who volunteered to engage with the project. Thereafter, the respective subject
teachers, having examined the objectives and content of the subjects, designed pilot tests that were
later administered to pupils in the teachers’ schools. This involved the application of a model of
multiple-objective examining whereby appropriate assessment techniques were selected to match the
objectives of the respective subjects. Combinations of objective tests, short-answer and long-answer
items were used in each case, in addition to a project/personal topic in the case of History. Objective
tests were limited to the testing of knowledge and comprehension, short-answer items to the testing
of application, and essay type questions to testing analysis and synthesis.
Ideally, a project of this nature would require
specially-designed programmes that would
facilitate the development of the higher-level
skills the project was expected to test and which
it was believed were not being currently
developed. However, this was not forthcoming
and thus the potential impact of the project was
limited. Nevertheless, a number of important
outcomes were identified, not least in the
provision of a comprehensive programme of inservice
education on all aspects of assessment for
the teachers, matching tests to specific objectives,
and the involvement of the teachers in all aspects
related to the design, administration and
“
The next phase in the reform
process was the establishment
of the Curriculum and
Examinations Board (CEB)
in January 1984. In this
phase, the curriculum and
examination systems were
to be reviewed in tandem.
”
examining of the pilot tests. Although the project was established at the request of the ICE
Committee in order to research some of the issues relating to the new system they were proposing,
it did not wait for the findings of the research project before submitting its own report. The PEEP
report suffered the same fate as its predecessor in that the Department reluctantly accepted the
report but did not seriously engage with the findings (Heywood, McGuinness, and Murphy 1980).
The next phase in the reform process was the establishment of the Curriculum and Examinations
Board (CEB) in January 1984. In this phase, the curriculum and examination systems were to be
reviewed in tandem. This offered great promise. The CEB issued a number of key reports on a
rationale and structure of a unified curriculum and an assessment system to match, involving the use
of a broad range of assessment techniques and an element of school-based assessment with the
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