Ms Carol Carberry:

Dancing should be classified more as an educational tool, whether it is cultural education or cultural art. Dance is not really a sport. It is not really comparable to football or camogie. Dr. Ní Bhriain touched on the examination structure. Apart from qualifying for teaching, we have a grade examination structure. Both an Comhdháil and the LRG have that. Children across the spectrum take part in that annually. We go from grade 1 onwards, which covers a little ceili dancing or figure dancing, a few questions as Gaeilge and a little music. That is educational. While a child might not win all the trophies or be top of his or her class academically, every child will be catered for and there will be a niche for them. They will do their exam and it will give them confidence to speak up. They will get a great sense of achievement, of going into do their dancing, answering the questions of the examiner and getting their certificate. It may sometimes be a pass, it may be an honour, or it may be first class honours. If they do not do so well in grade 1, then they will come to grade 3 or 4, it gets harder as it goes along, with more dances and more questions. We knew there would be no feiseanna because of the numbers, so most of the children were preparing to do those grade exams before Christmas when level 3 arrived.

We knew we could not have the céilí section - children could not even take hands for a four-hand dance - so we had already changed our curriculum such that we would give them more questions about céilí dancing and dancing in general. We had also changed the marking system. Now, under level 3, we cannot do that. Children had been looking forward to it and to getting their certificates. It does not greatly lend itself to an online setting because there may be one child at home, in the kitchen, while the rest of the family are doing whatever else. The child may be dancing on the tiles, perhaps doing a little bit in the kitchen, while someone else is on a carpet in the sitting room. It is not the way to do an examination. It is very important, from the child's and the teacher's point of view, that they get to do these grade examinations this year because it is the only thing they will have. We have had all our big events cancelled, including our 50th celebration of An Comhdháil this year, naturally, because the crowds were not permitted. We would very much like to be able to do these exams. The children go in and do them on a one-to-one basis with the teacher and the examiner, so we hope we might be able to find some way of doing the examinations.