Ms Moira Leydon:

I am glad Mr. Hassan used the word "transition" because we have certain solutions to the problem we identified. I am picking on three themes that have come across very strongly. At the risk of being teacherly, I think we are talking about two different things. We are talking about assessment and how it is spread over the year, etc., but we are also talking about the role of the leaving certificate, to be very blunt, as a selection mechanism for third level education. I prefaced my remarks by saying this is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the commission on the points system. This was the very issue it sought to address. Continuous assessment is exactly what it is. It is spread over the two or three year cycle. Actually, it is pretty well embedded in our system. For example, in Gaeilge, 40% of the marks for the examination at junior and senior cycle are for oral communication skills. This is exactly what it should be for a language because if someone cannot communicate orally, their communication capacity is diminished. The same is true for the practicals for music and the sciences. As the junior cycle rolls out, that facility is there. Continuous assessment is not really the challenge for our system.

The perennial challenge for our system is the fact that the leaving certificate is a very high-stakes examination and will remain so as long as it continues in that selection role for third level. As legislators, members of this committee are in the business of finding solutions. I was doing some reading around this matter this morning. I think we should all revisit the transitions project of 2011 when Professor Áine Hyland prepared a very well-researched and thoughtful paper in which she set out three potential solutions to this high-stakes selection function and how we can reduce stress and what has been called the backwash effect on teaching and learning. I would certainly suggest that members revisit that report to see how far the three core recommendations in it have been implemented. At the risk of being shot down by my third level colleagues, the one area where the least progress has been made has been entry to third level. We have changed the grading structure and conducted very reputable research on predictability in the leaving certificate examination. The conclusion was that leaving certificate examinations do, by and large, test the higher cognitive skills so it is not all about rote learning, etc., so we need to revisit that.

I think we have taken our eye off the ball over the past decade.

The Deputy referred to what I would describe as significant socioeconomic patterns in student achievement. That is still with us. It has not gone away. Every system struggles with this. We should look very carefully at how we can, as a system, put more resources and supports into our schools in order to break these cycles of disadvantage and lower achievement. I cannot quote the most recent but there have been evaluations of DEIS and ESRI research on the subject. One recent study showed that more than 64% of students deemed disadvantaged are outside the DEIS system. Those students are in schools where they are not getting the extra supports. They are not necessarily in schools which have a dedicated focus on dealing with disadvantage. The research on disadvantage shows that it is not so much the model of assessment that is critical to students' achievement levels. Rather it is whole school policies for school attendance and retention, high expectations of students by teachers and, more critically, a feeling of student engagement and being part of the school. That is what teachers often talk about - the school as a community. As Ms Irwin has said, our retention rate is up there at the top because schools make a huge effort in this regard. If 64% of our students who are not achieving because of background are not in DEIS schools, we need to think very seriously about supplementary models.

Coming back to the issues of well-being and stress, it is really to the credit of our legislators and our education community that student well-being has been at the heart of our debates on curriculum at the junior cycle through health promotion in schools, youth mental health guidelines and our new child protection policies. It is absolutely critical that we follow up on these good intentions and build the capacity of schools to realise them.

To be teacherly, I will say there are issues with continuous assessment in respect of how to do it better. We have a balance. We can always get a better balance, but we must address the selection function of the leaving certificate. Some 67% of our students transfer to higher education, which is defined as the institute of technology sector and third level sector. The iar-Aire was very much part of this policy development. We are really in a very good space at the moment with regard to further education and training, the amount of apprenticeships coming on board, the sense of enthusiasm out there and the promotion of these alternative post-school pathways. Ms Irwin referred to the junior cycle bedding down and that over time we might see conclusions. I believe that over time - over five years or so - we will see the impact of that further education policy and the opening up of apprenticeships. It will loosen the nexus between the leaving certificate and the selection function. I ask the committee to revisit the transitions project. That would be a good step.