Professor Diarmuid Hegarty:

To answer the Deputy's question, we have to look at the assessment, which focuses people's attention in fifth and sixth year. The kind of question I would ask is to what extent students in those two years spend their time on the predicting and memorising game and to what extent they spend their time on group work, group presentations, multimedia projects, producing podcasts and videos, reflective writing and preparing portfolios? They might do that if they are going to study design. To what extent are skills in communication, teamwork, analytical reasoning and critical thinking assessed on a day-to-day basis in school, as opposed to preparing students for their mark in the leaving certificate by which they and their teachers are rated under the existing system? Those are the questions that have to be asked and we have to get straight answers to them.