Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It has been challenging for the last year or two. The SEC came with the figures around the increase in the number of students and the decrease in the number of examiners. Each year that there is a decrease in examiners, the experience of the examiners gets only more difficult, making it more challenging year-on-year to get new examiners in. Where I come from, there was a leaving certificate student who, due to the timing of the leaving certificate results, was not able to access a place in a UK university. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has been working with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, UCAS, on some of those issues. That is a huge challenge in general for students accessing places. That student has now taken a year out and will, I hope, be able to apply and be eligible - because they are eligible - for a place in that university. That was due to the timelines we have here. That is an issue.

The SEC has multiple steps and is looking at incentives. What are the qualifications for examiners? What are the qualifications for an examiner for junior certificate, leaving certificate, applied and mainstream programmes? What is the future? If we are dealing with more students and getting fewer examiners, what is the role of digitalisation within the State Examinations Commission? What is the SEC looking at in terms of automating some processes? How is the SEC looking at it for students in terms of doing their exams? Is there a way to streamline? Has a budget been allocated? We have seen the largest budget ever in education, some €9.6 billion. How much of that goes to the State Examinations Commission? Will the witnesses tell the committee what budget has been allocated? How much has been allocated for future development and digital strategies to support how we are going to manage this in the future? If the SEC is having challenges and we cannot open up the pool of teachers to do the examination process, how are we going to streamline and accelerate digitalisation to support the elements which can be digitalised? I understand there are elements that cannot be. Surely, there is a way to streamline processes to support the capacity challenges we have at the moment, using technology to support that.