Ms Elaine Sheridan:

I appreciate the submissions provided to the committee and which the Deputy reviewed. We reviewed them all and again some of the content of those are curriculum issues which would not be within our area, and specifically within the exam.

Taking the observations, the sample paper was issued and there was both a positive and negative reaction to sample papers, as there was in terms of any of the sample papers we issued. It is the junior cycle framework. The purpose of it is a new approach to teaching and learning and to assessment at junior cycle. It is a learning outcomes-based specification and is not a content-based specification. That is one of the key changes with the junior cycle framework. All of the specifications in all of the subjects are driven by learning outcomes not content. It is not that we take section 1 of the specification to deal with this piece of content and section 2 to deal with another but is an integrated approach. In terms of Gaeilge, the idea is to integrate the language throughout the communicative competency of the students.

On the examination paper, because it is a learning outcomes-based approach, it does not look or feel the same as the junior certificate Gaeilge examination paper, nor do the geography or maths papers. They look different because they are developed in line with the specification, which is a kind of an integrated approach. One does not have a particular question based upon a piece of content. The questions assess across the range of strands, elements and the various learning outcomes in the specification.

The feedback was taken on when we published our sample paper. There was feedback in respect of it being too long and that there may have been too many questions, and there was one less question then on the live examination paper. Any other feedback was taken into account, reviewed and shared with our people who are working with us on the paper preparation. I mentioned the subject experts and the reviewers. On some of the observations in respect of the 2022 paper, maybe people were saying that it was not easy for the teachers to prepare the students in terms of content that would come up. That is because that is the structure of the specification.

The idea with this is that we are trying to encourage critical thinking and these 21st century skills. The idea is that the students engage with the language and the literature throughout the classroom as part of the teaching and learning process and that the examination then will provide opportunities for them to demonstrate their personal experience and thoughts, what they feel and what they think, through the medium of Irish, from their discussion and engagement in the classroom on that. It is not so much, - I will use English here as an example - if the poet Sylvia Plath will come up in the leaving certificate English paper. The learning outcomes approach does not lend itself to where one has a content-based driven examination. That is the first piece of a change that is there.

There is a different approach to assessment because it is to provide students with an opportunity, all students of different levels of ability, to use their personal experience and engagement to demonstrate their attainment. That is why, then, within the examination paper itself, there is a range of questions. These are more critical thinking higher-order questions, short response questions and opportunities then within the written production for longer responses also.