Professor Gordon Stobart:

I take it that typically there are about seven subjects in the leaving certificate. Is that right? If I take some of the earlier points that have just been made about the transition year, I would say we could do with fewer subject-specific assessments and have more other kinds of assessments in there.

Rather than assess transition year, which I could see being a problem because it would quickly become an assessment issue, I would ask what the best of transition year is and whether we can develop it further within the leaving certificate in order that you would get this broader certificate at the end. The latter would be like the International Baccalaureate and the baccalaureate where there is philosophy, practicals and orals, among other things, that give us a better, wider picture of what a student can do. I am no fan of the English three A Levels because that narrows it down even more, and there is no other side stuff. It just allows students to drop maths, English or whatever they want and concentrate on three subjects, which is not a broad-based education at that stage. If I was looking at this from the outside, I might ask why not broaden the certificate. That may mean reducing some of the subject-specific components.