Changes are to be made to the National Certificate Examination in journalism for the next exam, which will be taken on April 12.

The National Council for the Training of journalists has announced the move.

It will mean more emphasis is to be placed on law in the newspaper practice paper.

The speech will be cut by two minutes and a more comprehensive brief given to candidates.

And background information given to students before they conduct their news interview will be cut to a more streamlined 300 words.

The changes come after low pass rates were achieved at recent NCEs.

Spring 2001 saw an overall pass rate of 43 per cent, up on the 40 per cent recorded a year before and an improvement on the low of 35 per cent for the previous September.

This year’s autumn results are due to be announced within the next two weeks.

The changes for Spring 2002 are as follows:

News Interview