Ms Andrea Feeney:

The Deputy is correct. The first examination should have been in 2020 but, because of the interruption of the Covid pandemic, that did not happen so the first examination was in 2022. Adjustments were made to the assessment arrangements for both the junior cycle and the leaving certificate, recognising the disruption to the educational journey of those students created by Covid. In the case of the junior cycle, students had to do one rather than two of the classroom-based assessments. When we think of the junior cycle, the focus is not just on the written examination. In fact, it is about dispersing the assessment load.