Ms Brigid McManus:

That is something we need to think about, but it will take a conversation on the fundamentals that will involve major research and talking to all the actors in the system. That is not something one can do in a day or two. It is a valid issue.

The Senator is correct that the well-being of students is critical because the pressure on student seems to be growing. I hope that some of the elements of the transition year programme will help with that, but it remains an issue for many students at second level.

The issue of resources for the National Council for Special Education is not relevant to my role as chairperson of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. I am not saying that I do not have resource issues, but thankfully one of the benefits of not being Secretary General is that my successor or Mr. Eamon Stack has to grapple with the SNAs. Our interface with the NCSE is much more in the curriculum programmes of learning space.

Deputy Cannon raised the issue of autonomy of the NCCA. I touched on this a bit earlier but the role of a policy advisory body is always tricky because one gives policy advice to the Minister or a Department but ultimately it is a political decision as to whether the advice is taken or the extent to which it is taken. The overall strategic direction of the education system is a wider remit of which NCCA may have one input. We are not completely independent but we are not in the space of being told to do this or that. We look at the issues, and will report on what we think might be the best model. People will come back, be they at the Minister's end or from some of the partners in education, and say whether they like it or not. The eventual policy comes out of a kind of democratic dialogue. We are not fully autonomous in the sense that we do not determine what exactly is in the education system but as I said earlier our credibility depends on us coming up with our best advice on an independent basis rather than just being told to do something. Obviously the overall strategic direction is set by the Minister.

The Chairman commented on capturing the views of students. What we have done is to involve groups of students in giving feedback so that the NCCA will organise student representatives not just at second level. The Office of the Minister for Children and the Ombudsman for Children will facilitate us in organising groups of students at primary level so that they can make an input.

We obviously have parent representatives on the council but I agree that the parental input has a significant impact on children's learning. We do a number of things, there are great many resources available now. When my child was small parents were told to read to them and I might have known that, but do most educated people know the activities that one must do with children around numeracy? I am not sure they do, other than counting the steps of the stairs. I do not think people know what they can do to help their child's structured thinking unless he or she is trained as an educator. I think that is a very important resource.

We developed resources around how schools would report on standardised tests, for example, at primary level. That is all about trying to ensure that schools engage with parents and engage with them in a way that parents can understand. I believe the Deputy mentioned that the capacity of parents or students to engage is influenced by background. When we do work with our network schools or anything we always try to get a mix of schools, including DEIS schools. By and large DEIS schools have a very good track record when engaging with parents, perhaps better than some other schools.

The website includes a parents' section, including resources for parents. We produce leaflets for parents. With the Department of Education and Skills on the junior cycle, we would have attended parent meetings to explain the changes involved. We do quite a range of work. The resources one for me is a really good one for people to get stuff. I think it may not be sufficiently well known by parents, but there is a parents section on it.

Our work on physical education involves looking at physical education as an examinable subject at second level, but also at a new framework for physical education even where schools are not doing it as an exam subject. There are now 400 hours for well-being under the new proposals in the junior cycle, which obviously has to include physical education. One of the short courses we developed for junior cycle is around physical education, looking at how it can be assessed differently. I agree that the NCCA needs to look at education in a holistic way. It is not just about the maths or the English, important as they are; it is about some of the other issues.

I hope I have dealt with everything there.