Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for all of their contributions. It is 30 years since I did my leaving certificate but I still remember it very clearly. I am not sure if the matric is still there but it was certainly there when I did my leaving certificate. We had the leaving certificate and then we had the matric immediately afterwards. Stress was not such a big issue in my day, but it is for students now. Schools are themselves under pressure to get the right exam results and this consequently goes onto the children and the parents. What can we do in a general way to help reduce the stress on students? How can we help them realise that it is not the end of the world if they do not get the results they want and there is life after the leaving certificate?

Regarding the leaving certificate applied, Ms Ní Chonghaile raised an important issue here about the uptake of this exam and the content of its modules. Deputy Byrne mentioned the NCAA in a different context. I know that it is carrying out a review on this matter, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, is compiling a discussion paper which will inform a review of the senior cycle system and will look at some of these issues. I would also like to ask about bonus points for subjects like maths. Has this actually encouraged students to take up the subject? If this is the case, could we use it to incentivise students to take up other subjects? Could we consider it for other subjects? Could we also consider incorporating global trends, for example, east Asian economics or languages in the leaving certificate? I did a degree in languages myself before I did law and I know that we are very short in this country on foreign language speakers. This is something I would like to see addressed more proactively in schools, so perhaps one of the witnesses could talk about this.