Mr. Kieran Christie:

What is happening is that when our colleagues from the Department of education came to the committee last week and said they are proceeding with it, they were telling the committee the correct information. As of 1 September, the new syllabuses in nine tranche subjects were introduced. It is up and running. The plan is to add more subjects each year for four years. It is proceeding. It is not happening as we and our colleagues in the TUI would have liked. We would have liked a pause but, be that as it may, the pause did not happen. People who will be accessing this broadcast later need to be aware of that. We are trying to pull out of the fire the kinds of issues we see. Some of them are bordering on car-crash issues, such as the issues around AI and resourcing.

My colleague provided the committee with a stark example of a school in Donegal that does not have enough labs. I am not familiar with that school. However, I can think of plenty more examples that are kind of similar. What needs to happen now is a serious step-up in resourcing by the Department in relation to this issue. It is not good enough to say there is a summer works scheme. Traditionally under this scheme, a school could get a bit of work done over the summer when the students are not in. We all know that is not cutting it. It is only glossing over it. The Department needs to bring forward solid structural capital funding for labs in the area of science. It also needs to bring forward quality guidance for teachers in relation to the use of AI, and not only the guidance that came out yesterday, which is somewhat superficial. The key piece for teachers is how they handle AI in the context of examinations. We do not have that yet. As part of the process we are in, we are trying to work with the Department through all the issues to ensure that some order or shape can be put on what has started off quite chaotically, to be frank.