Mr. Michael Gillespie:

We can go back to the core idea that we had, which is to develop second components of assessments in subjects that can start being assessed in fifth year in certain aspects. They would have to be appropriate to the level of knowledge, skills or competences for that stage. It would be a case of State certification of those, and all those second components of assessment would be added together. As I said, there are already subjects where 60% of the exam is done due to second components of assessments before the formal exam is done in May or June. For example, this year home economics will be the first leaving certificate exam when it begins in December. The first component of assessment of home economics will be in December and it will gradually build and add together.

These processes also measure different skills. If we design second components of assessment and it is not a case of measuring ability on a written exam, we will give better opportunities to all the types of intelligence and learning abilities in students. It widens the spread of what can be examined and what students can benefit from. We would give more opportunity to students.

As the Deputy indicates, the problem is we are resource-poor in schools. We are punching way above our weight in all the OECD measurements for the level of investment we have compared with other countries. It is something we should be proud of but why not make up that level of investment so we could have the required number of guidance teachers or therapeutic supports that were mentioned earlier for the students who need it? All these support systems are absolutely overstretched in our schools, which limits our performance and our ability to help students to achieve what they should be capable of.

We have already mentioned the number of people who are failing in first year for a variety of reasons. It could be down to economic support, for example. An earlier question asked why there is not diversity in teachers. We have geographic and social issues in training teachers.

In certain areas of the world, teachers cannot get a placement for their postgraduate diploma in education because there is no availability of a college in their area. There would be an added cost in doing it elsewhere. Everything eventually comes down to finance and the lack of financial support for students and the systems that need to support those students. It all comes down to money.