Professor Áine Hyland:

Exactly. I am afraid that interviews would disadvantage those who are already disadvantaged much more. The points commission report from 1999, which is a long time ago, addressed many of those issues in detail and looked at the positives and negatives. There was also widespread consultation. As Professor Looney mentioned, Ireland was not ready for change at that time. Nor was it ready in 2005 when Professor Looney came up with her proposals for a revised leaving certificate.

There is no perfect system. Ireland differs from some other countries because education has always been so high on the agenda and it has always been a social lifter. Most of us would came from rural and small farm backgrounds two or three generations ago, and over the generations the leaving certificate and education generally were what brought us to where we are. Whether that is good or bad, that is how it is perceived and that is why Irish people have such a respect for the education system and the leaving certificate.

I am equally puzzled as to why the NCCA is going ahead with revising syllabi while the Minister is looking at the proposals of the NCCA for an overall reform of senior cycle education. It may well be that the Minister and all of the decision makers, including those on the committee, will decide that there should be a better balance between the vocational and the academic, which we do not have. There are a lot of decisions implicit in the review and reform of senior cycle education. The NCCA should hold back. I am impressed by the teachers in subject associations. They have no other agenda and are willing to embrace change, but they do not know that there is little or no content in these new specifications. They are almost without content and there is no information on how they will be assessed. I am fully supportive of the Irish Science Teachers Association, the Irish Agricultural Science Teachers Association and the 12 different Irish language groups that are engaging in the consultation process on the revision of senior cycle Irish. Their concerns need to be listened to.