Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I also thank the contributors. I would like to talk about this in general and perhaps pick up first on the point made by Mr. Donohoe and others about the slow pace of change. This is a real concern for me. Obviously, I have experience of trying to deal with the slow pace of change and I spent many hours sitting across the table from education stakeholders. I am absolutely convinced that we need to change and move to things like classroom-based assessment and skills-based learning. We need to assess young people on the basis of something other than a three-hour exam in each subject after a two-year cycle. We need systems that match the modern world and match higher education. How can we now move on? When it comes to junior cycle reform, the train has already left the station and teachers are now working on different forms of assessment other than simply memorising and regurgitating material in written exams. This is very welcome.

My next question is a general one for whoever would like to answer it, particularly the representatives from the Department, the NCCA and perhaps the ISSI. Ms Ní Chonghaile pointed out in her statement that learning models in the senior cycle will need to complement the learning modules experienced in the junior cycle. How do we move it on? We have made a start in the junior cycle and I think it inevitable that this will translate up into senior cycle. How do make it speedier? The curriculum reforms mentioned in computer science and in politics and society, for example, have been in gestation for several years now. I have not been on this committee for very long so I do not know whether it is planned to bring in the teaching unions and management bodies on this issue, but they are essential to progress and to moving on the agenda. Everybody in this room is agreed that we need to move towards the reforms outlined here, but making it actually happen is what really concerns me.

I am interested in hearing from any of the delegates who has a view on how we can make reform of the leaving certificate cycle quicker and how we can bring others along with us.