Mr. John Curtis:

I concur with the points made about assessment. One of the issues that compelled us all to examine the junior certificate and the changes made at that level was the assessment for learning model of education that was developed in the previous decade. It was a model that sought to get students to assess their own work. It sought to get teachers to engage in different forms of assessment. It has been key to the progress we have made in education at junior cycle specifically in recent years. We can build on that very much at senior cycle level. A key consideration is balance. In the context of homework, the world is changing. Some aspects of what we do in school are still quite Victorian in ways but subject by subject, we need to have that disciplinary grounding All the studies show that knowledge is extremely important. What we have to do is to work out how that knowledge is deployed properly in the modern world. I used the word "balance" earlier. As we move forward, that will be key to our conversations.