Ms Elaine Sheridan:

Certification is different in the junior cycle. With the junior certificate the SEC issues a certificate to the schools. It is the sole certification for the junior certificate. The approach to the junior cycle is different. The junior cycle framework brings with it the junior cycle profile of achievement, JCPA, for the students. I think a sample of it was attached with our opening statement. That is a key change. The SEC piece of the JCPA is only one piece. Classroom-based and school based assessments are another, where students are getting certification and being rewarded and acknowledged for other activities, beyond the SEC element of the examination. The key part within the junior cycle framework is that the purpose of this change and reform is to ensure that students are certified and there is acknowledgement of achievement beyond the written examination at the end of the day. That is where the oral assessment is coming in, within the second classroom-based assessment. It is acknowledged and recorded on this JCPA that students receive at the end of the day. It is important to remember that the SEC element is only one element of the certification for junior cycle, whereas in the junior certification, it was the one certificate.