Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by referring to something that Dr. Smyth did not reach while making her opening contribution. The final paragraph of the opening statement begins by stating, "In conclusion, existing evidence points to a negative effect of the Leaving Certificate assessment model on the education and socio-economic development of young people and points to the potential to adopt a broader approach to assessment that is not focused on a short window of time at the end of their second-level education." The paragraph goes on to rehearse a lot of the deficiencies in the leaving certificate model that have been repeatedly identified at this committee. There has been close to unanimity expressed on the deficiencies that exist in the leaving certificate. There has been mention of the need to move to an alternative assessment model that works across the senior cycle. There is also the fact that we tend to point at the matriculation element of the leaving certificate and to focus too much on that. There is also the temptation within all schools to move to a system of rote learning, which definitely has an ongoing impact into third level, and further and higher education where people who are good at rote learning are promoted and the deficiency in critical thinking skills remains in place. I would encourage people to read the last paragraph of the opening statement as supplied. It is a very good summation of many of the contributions that we have had at this committee so far.

I have a range of reasonably specific questions for Dr. Freeman and Mr. Donohoe. I will start by asking Dr. Freeman about the STEM field. We have never before experienced such a rate of change in the STEM area. Are we keeping pace in terms of the curriculum specifications for sciences such as physics and computer sciences? There has been an extremely high rate of change in computer sciences in particular. We referenced teaching skills as well. Are we getting the engagement on CPD that we need in order for teaching to deliver at the level needed? Formal accreditation has been mentioned. Are we incentivising this? Unless there is a carrot to that stick, in respect of people taking on CPD in their own time, then we cannot expect people to engage as they lead busy lives. Are we doing enough to support the learning of digital skills and digital technologies?

In the specifications for subjects, are we pointing at things that really do develop problem solving and critical thinking? Coding is a very logical format and is based around problem solving and critical thinking skills. Are we doing enough to retrofit STEM subjects in schools to keep pace with the actual change in the area?