Dr. Harold Hislop:

I will comment on the discussions that were happening. It was very clear from our earliest discussions with the current Minister that she had questions about the inclusion of the historical data. It was the subject of ongoing discussion and something at which we had to look as we developed the model.

The Deputy asked about the announcement regarding examinations the Welsh authorities have made today. The English authorities had already announced that the A level examinations will go ahead in England. One of the examinations in Scotland, the national 5 examinations, which are the equivalent of the GCSEs, will move to a school-based assessment but the higher qualifications examinations, highers, will be held as a traditional examination. We are determined to run the leaving certificate examination. This was also the determination and preference of all stakeholders last March and April. The advisory group that was referred to was determined that examinations be held if at all possible. The group did, however, reach unanimous agreement that this was not safe or feasible for 2020, which is why we had to move ahead with calculated grades.

There was also a question about the junior certificate results and the combination involved. It was not simply a matter of scores from the revised junior certificate subjects. Over the course of the implementation of the revised junior certificate, certain cohorts of students have been taking the revised subjects as they came on stream while others have still been taking the subjects in the old manner. There was, therefore, still a full range of subjects from which to draw data.