Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Brigid Ms McManus. I thank the Chairman for scheduling this event. I used to be a full member of this committee but, of late, I am not. I have come in deliberately because I have long connections with the NCCA. I commend Ms McManus on her long career of dedicated public service. If it is acceptable to the Chairman, there are four questions I wish to put. Can Ms McManus tell the committee about the junior cycle changes and how assessment for learning will improve, given the acrimonious negotiations that have taken place, and what in her opinion will be better as a result?

Eight or nine other educators from across the country and I visited Finland in May last and we looked at its education system from top to bottom, as in from preschool right up to higher education and beyond. We looked at senior cycle, which is children aged 16 plus, and subsequently, we had the leaving certificate here. I was struck by two features of the senior cycle children in Finland. First, they have a lot of personal autonomy. They do their courses in six-week chunks. They have to make choices and as opposed to making one's subject choice for two years, they make choices in six weeks. Second, they take their examination in either October or March each year. In other words, a student could decide to sit four examinations in March and the other four in October or to do them all on one occasion. It gave them a lot of personal choice.

I was shocked with what I learned when it came to the leaving certificate here. I had a meeting in Oranmore one evening and there were four of us, as parents, with children doing either leaving certificate or junior certificate. Of the four of us, we had five children sitting examinations and four of them had independent superintendents, for instance, for special needs which we all think of. However, it was stress mostly, and glandular fever. One child had home tuition for a year. I refer to four parents with five children. I then did some work with the Department of Education and Skills and we found out the need for independent rooms has gone up 20% since 2000. Maybe my figures are wrong, but approximately 10,000 students need independent superintendents. I suppose my question to Ms McManus is this. Has the NCCA looked at reforming the taking of examinations? I understand it is moving into senior cycle now. Would she be open to giving children more choice around doing modules for shorter periods of time? Sometimes it is difficult for children to stay the distance whereas they can be quite hot for six or eight week periods. I liked the idea of more autonomy for the students as well. As Ms McManus will be aware, we want to keep them in school. Despite the fact that early school leaving has reduced, we still have 11% doing so. The rate is high. That concept of taking the leaving certificate twice in the one year is my second question.

Others around the table might have had concerns about the third matter I raise. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, proposes a remodelling and reallocation of resources to schools and we all have experienced a backlash locally when that was coming down the road without adequate consultation. In fairness, the Minister agreed to postpone it for a year. Postponing it for a year is fine but it will not be any better a year down the road unless we do it better. Has Ms McManus links with the NCSE? Is she discussing that with it? What will work with schools is if they get templates of how their school could be affected by the new proposed model before that is set in stone. Perhaps Ms McManus has a view on that.

My final question - I thank the Chair for the indulgence - is about Gaeilge. I note Deputy O'Brien raised Gaeilge with Ms McManus. I will raise it for a different reason. Deputy Cannon beside me might be familiar with the report published recently in The Connacht Tribunethat there is ten years left in the Irish language, as we are currently do it. I always feel that while one has a language reliant on schools instead of communities it will be short term, particularly around the Gaeltacht. I have had a proposal in my head for a long number of years, which is that if we want children to be excited about the language we must have them in the natural setting of the language. Has the NCCA looked at providing a model whereby the children can be in the Gaeltacht for maybe two or three weeks during the school year? All the resources are in the Gaeltacht, such as the buildings and those with the expertise. I was thinking particularly of early first-year students. It would be an ideal time because not every child can afford to go to the Gaeltacht. Often they go to the Gaeltacht at the end of first year or second year, but there is a first-year term which would be a great break-in period.