Mr. Tony Donohoe:

I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to address it on what is a critical issue for business. Business and educators have a shared objective of developing young minds with an appetite for learning and the ability to adapt to what can be an unpredictable future. Translating these shared aspirations into something more tangible is the major challenge. Seven years ago, I presented evidence to the Joint Committee on Education and Skills on reform of the junior cycle. At the time, I said:

IBEC believes that radical reform of junior cycle teaching methods and curriculum content could have a profound impact on education outcomes including the development of critical thinkingand moving away from the dominance of rote learning. Therefore it should be regarded as a priority area for policy attention and investment.

I am telling the committee this for two reasons. The development of key skills at all levels of the education system has been a priority of business for many years. Moving from a content based to a more skills based learning model at an early stage is more likely to equip students with 21st century skills we have been hearing about. I am also highlighting this because it also provides a useful example of how long it takes to implement reform. The much diluted reforms of the new junior cycle programme will not be finished until autumn 2021, which is a quarter of a century after the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment started its review of the curriculum and assessment methods. While we welcome the commitments in the action plan for education to review senior cycle programmes, we cannot afford to wait until half way through this century to see the outcomes of this review implemented.

I make this point while acknowledging that education reform necessarily is incremental and necessarily proceeds at a relatively slow pace. If business brings a new product or service to market and it fails, it can go back to the drawing board. If an education reform fails, young people’s lives are profoundly affected. However, the need for an innate conservatism should not be used as an excuse for prevarication or the protection of self-interest. Hopefully, this is a more propitious time for considering reform. There is a growing acceptance that the dominance of the leaving certificate and the so-called "points race" poses a challenge in terms of what provides the best education experience for all of our young people.

Employers are less concerned about the qualification level than the relevance of job applicants’ skills. These can be developed at all levels of education. Traditionally, Irish society has placed too much value on the traditional academic model of attainment which does not serve all young people well. People learn in different ways and at different stages of their life. Therefore, we need a system that provides multiple progression routes and values experiential learning.We have provided the committee with a more detailed submission and responses to some of its questions, as well as some of our initial thinking on the review of the senior cycle programmes.

We acknowledge some of the recent developments such as the introduction of computer science for the leaving certificate and new specifications for biology, physics and chemistry. However we need a much more extensive review across all programmes.

There is much to be learned from our experience with the junior cycle reforms. The new curriculum, even within its current limitations, sets out to embrace the kind of modern teaching, learning and assessment methods which are overwhelmingly supported by educationalists. Its key skills and statements of learning are also based on concepts that employers recognise and value. The success of any reform ultimately depends on what happens in the classroom. Therefore we recommend an independent review of the implementation challenges encountered during the two most significant, recent, curriculum reform programmes, the new junior cycle and Project Maths.

I will finish by making a more general comment on the so-called 21st century skills that we have heard about. In fact, with the possible exception of the most recent information technology development, they existed well before the 21st century and our ancestors have been using them for centuries. They have become more critical because a greater proportion of the jobs of the present and future rely on them than ever before. There does not need to be a trade-off between these skills and high-value academic outcomes which I confidently predict will be at the centre of debates around a reformed senior cycle, and this has been touched on in earlier opening statements. It is possible to teach maths through problem solving or to teach history through critical thinking, and these are the skills that business is looking for. Standardised tests can be used effectively in conjunction with other assessment methods. However, in systems such as the leaving certificate, where a few exams can have such as dramatic effect on an individual's educational opportunities and subsequent job prospects, there is not much space for critical thinking or creativity. For a significant cohort of our young people, this high stakes exam culture also kills the appetite for ongoing learning.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to be here and look forward to answering its questions.