Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agaibh to all of our guests. I have been listening intently online for part of the meeting and now I am here. This is one of the most refreshing, honest and valuable conversations we have had around leaving certificate reform and what needs to be done. Our guests' experiences and their honesty are appreciated and will be valuable for the report we are trying to do and in identifying the priorities we want to come out of that report. We would not want to see 100 different recommendations and none of them implemented. We need to focus on some key things. I take on board in particular what Mr. Miley said about the transition, that it might take three years to do what we need to do on a phased basis while preserving the benefits of the leaving certificate as it is. It is easy for us to say it is all rubbish and we need to change it without concentrating on the positives. Quality assurance, continuity, comparability, equability and State certification are all important.

I have a question about the immediate challenge we face for the 80,000 students who will sit the leaving certificate examination this year. Dr. Ryan referred to the destabilisation of the results trend and the need to recalibrate. How do we do that in the immediate term? How do we get away from the use of the random selection to choose between applicants? There is an absolute unfairness in that and the sense of injustice for those who have been subject to it is ferocious. We need to deal with that issue.

I will turn to the barriers to cross-Border student mobility in higher education and the difference in the value of A levels and the leaving certificate. What part do our guests think we should play in reforming the leaving certificate and considering how we compare the A levels sat by students in the North to allow them to apply for courses in the different colleges across the island?

The Higher Education Colleges Association, HECA, stated the leaving certificate curriculum should be reformed to promote Irish as a living language. Could Professor Hegarty expand on that further and outline the type of teaching that students require? Does he believe there may be an issue with teacher fluency? Would this type of change require much retraining for teachers?