Mr. Paul Crone:

Regarding the digital divide, when lockdown happened first, many students from disadvantaged areas tried to access shopping centres to get access to free Wi-Fi because they did not have it at home. Schools invested a lot in dongles to try to allow students to get access, and that was a hugely important initiative. I have heard from those principals going forward to the leaving certificate exam that approximately 40% of students opted for the accredited grades only, whereas 1% of students opted for the exams only. Anecdotally, I hear that in DEIS schools way more than 40% opted for the accredited grades. They have chosen with their feet. In the absence of those direct data, which we need to get, the question is whether or not the current leaving certificate exam format is truly fair. A point was made earlier about reasonable accommodations at certificate examinations, RACE, and why we would need RACE if the exam were truly fair.