Dr. Alan Gorman:

To link in with what my colleague Dr. Keating said and returning to the Chair's question on the magic wand, the Department has had a very strong focus on subscribing to a measurable standards agenda in education policy, particularly looking at attainment levels in literacy and numeracy. While that is important there is a danger that there can be a preoccupation with measurable outcomes such as standardised testing. The consequence can be a narrow focus on the curriculum and then looking at practices such as ability grouping and streaming. That can have an impact on children and on their learning in the school environment too. We should be mindful of the holistic development and the holistic curriculum into the future and that we do not focus on narrow attainment levels in future curriculum development or redesign.