Mr. Jim Miley:

I was struck by the Senator's comments on mentorship. It is an interesting idea that would need to be explored further. I am with colleagues on the transition year concept being imbued further into the overall cycle. That is critical. It still leads to an end point - I will call it that because I want to get away from the notion of the end exam being the be-all and end-all, which we have been arguing against - but the challenge in remodelling the system is that there are two things to do. One is that the process itself and the curriculum needs adjustment. There are very good ideas around the table on that today. However, that still gets to an end point, and the challenge of overcoming the absolute fixation - it is more than a temptation - on gaming the end point, whatever it is, also has to be addressed. Whether it is an exam, an interview or whatever else, the potential for gaming is strong, and the gaming is driven probably much more by the parents, perhaps the parents of middle Ireland to which Deputy Ó Ríordáin referred earlier more than most, in terms of the ambitions for their sons or daughters. It is a matter of ensuring that the reforms that would be proposed both address the process of the curriculum itself and adequately address the end point, which we have argued in our submission should be a much higher component of continuous assessment combined with a less significant end exam.