Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I thank everybody, including those in the Gallery, for attending. I have a great interest in the area, and not necessarily in the context of the current debate on some of the proposed reforms of the leaving certificate. It relates to students' anxiety, stress and mental health. It even starts as young as primary school, as we see children worrying about spelling tests on Fridays. Children tend to compare themselves with other children from a very young age and feel they are not good enough or cannot do something as well as another student. That can stay with a person and it is a constant battle to try to build children's confidence.

I am not questioning the quality of teaching or the curriculum of the leaving certificate but I question the way we currently assess students. It is not a fair system and it is weighted in favour of students who might come from a more affluent background and may be able to afford grinds or extra support. If students are in any way panicked or stressed, or if they suffer from anxiety at all, it will be exacerbated during exams. Most of us would know many people who say the leaving certificate was one of the worst if not the worst experience of their life. I include myself in that. If we have a system like that, it is clearly failing.

Continuous assessment does not necessarily need to be from fourth year onwards but we could look at the model in some colleges, where 60% of marks are awarded for exams and 40% comes from continuous assessment. A student must pass the exam in order to pass a particular subject. I do not see the difficulty with it being run by the State Examinations Commission. Some teachers take issue with being the person who must assess a student constantly and the fairness in it. It is a reasonable point. We need to move from the model of having just one exam. Depending on subject choice and day on which the exam takes place, a student might study for two years but have everything examined in four or five days. If exams start on a Wednesday, all the exams might be completed by the following Wednesday. With other subject choices, there might be a gap of a week in which a student can study. It is completely unfair as it currently stands.

Would a level of continuous assessment be a fairer way of examining students? If not, what would the witnesses suggest as a change to the current leaving certificate? There are many stories and everybody knows the level of stress and anxiety in students. People cannot say it does not have an impact on students when it does. Mr. Browne made the point that there is an effect on families as well. It is becoming clearer every year. It does not help that when the leaving certificate examinations start, there is hype in the media about the number of students doing it and what they thought of the first English paper. We should not have any of that as we are constantly drawing attention to it. On the day of the results, there are one or two people with six or seven A grades, which is great for them, but that does not reflect the majority of people. Students who may already doubt themselves and have issues of confidence and anxiety will look at them and see somebody else who is again better than them. We know there are major mental health issues with young people. I am not saying this is the only reason for it but it is a major and increasing factor.

If the witnesses could change one element of the current leaving certificate structure, what would it be? What should be done differently from a mental health perspective? For example, I know some schools practise mindfulness, doing it for maybe five or ten minutes every day. I know we must consider resources and what can be done but there are practical ways to try to address the mental health issues of students.