Dr. Harold Hislop:

If I may, I will address the questions raised by Deputy McConalogue regarding continuing professional development, CPD, for teachers and the junior cycle. The Minister's decisions to implement the new junior cycle framework and the roll-out of the individual subject have of course created a big demand for teacher in-service training. Most such training will be focused, in the second and third years of it, on the assessment. That is the design of the in-service training that has been worked out. The initial sessions for teachers in the year prior to the implementation of each subject mainly pertain to the content of the syllabus but those sessions in year one and year two, as assessment becomes a reality for teachers, are mainly about assessment. Where they are into the first year of roll-out but prior to the second year, when assessment by teachers will take place, that year's in-service training will be mainly about the skills of assessment. These skills, which will be transferable to CPD, also will be bolstered by the guides to assessment produced by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, that is, by the resource pack of assessment materials the NCCA would produce. Moreover, the State Examination Commission, SEC, will continue to produce the examination paper for use at the end, as well as the marking schemes. Unlike many countries that simply transferred completely to a teacher-based assessment model, the decision here appears to have been a much more nuanced one. While we are moving to a much more teacher-based assessment, it is being supported and framed much more comprehensively than many other countries would have done.