Dr. Bryan Maguire:

I will return to the framework, where the emphasis on the learning outcomes is what the students have learned and not how they have demonstrated that learning at any given point in time. It is certainly not about how they have learned it at three weeks in June of the year they happen to sit the leaving certificate. The pandemic has disclosed that there is more than one way to assess what students have learned and I hope we will be learning lessons from this and that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment will learn lessons. Obviously, it is their prerogative to advise the Minister on that.

From the perspective of general qualifications the point we need to know is whether a student has achieved enough to have a sound basis to be able to go on to the next step. Whether that stage is into further education, into higher education, directly into the workplace or an apprenticeship, or another on-campus course, it is important that we have a variety of opportunities. One of things the HEA is doing, and which this Bill will facilitate further, is a lot of research on where students are coming from. This goes back to the Chairman's question about which schools and which areas, including the geographical and electoral districts, the students are coming from, and what this does for the students' progress right through the journey of further education, into higher education and onwards into employment, through linking up with the data collected by the CSO. We are just bringing big data to bear on this question of progression so we can get well beyond the headlines we have had in the past. This will help to give the schools, colleges and universities the information they need to help put students in the position where they can get the courses they can profit from, and to give them the support they need if they have gaps in their background.