Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both witnesses for the considerable amount of work that has been done since they both took office. It has been an extraordinary journey.

My questions are twofold. One arises from the comments made here last week by the officials from the Department in relation to the leaving certificate students of 2020 and those who were downgraded from their teachers' grades. Last week I asked the officials if there is an acknowledged group of students that were downgraded who previously had patterns of achieving consistently high grades. The response I got was that there is no acknowledgement of such a specific, discreet or distinct group and that this was dealt with by saying that these are students whose grades were overestimated. That appears to suggest that there has been a systematic review of the students who claim that they were downgraded from a pattern of high grades and that there was some sort of an engagement with their results in order to be able to cast a net around them to say that this is the group that has been downgraded and the only reason for the downgrade is that they were overestimated and there is not any other possibility for it. I am curious about that review and how such a widesweeping definition and decision could be applied to that particular group.