Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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To follow on from the remarks of Deputy Ó Snodaigh and before I get into the discussion on the reform of the leaving certificate in the long term, there is a strong case to be made for an early decision on whether the leaving certificate for 2022 will be rolled out in the same format as the exam in 2021. The students who are undertaking next year's leaving certificate missed a significant amount of in-class learning when they were in fifth year and are going through a teacher substitution crisis at the moment. I understand from many second level schools that teachers are covering classes that are not theirs and a significant number of teachers are absent due to the pandemic, yet there still seem to be conversations about potentially closing early for Christmas and there is even a question mark over whether schools will open after Christmas in the context of the nature of the new variant. Although it might not be very popular, would it not be quicker, cleaner and easier for the Department to make an early decision to roll out the leaving certificate for 2022 in the same manner as was done in 2021, with a hybrid model involving written exams and accredited grades?

All the students who lost out in fifth year and who are losing out now because of the substitution crisis, and who will potentially lose out in the new year, will have additional stress because of the ambiguity. I do not necessarily expect an answer or opinion on that, but perhaps I could be given an indication as to whether the disruption this year is ongoing.

Others referred to correlations with their own school experience. How fundamentally has the leaving certificate changed since I did it in 1994? Subject changes and changes to certain assessment levels have been alluded to. Is the leaving certificate radically different from what it was in 1994, when I did it? I assume it is pretty much the same.

With regard to subject choice, the remote learning that has come into play in the past couple of years has possibilities. I realise I am always banging this drum but there are schools that do not have the same subject choice as others. That is the way we run our system. We do not have a State system; we have a State-funded system. In certain schools, a value judgment is made as to whether one subject should be chosen over another. Alternatively, there may be timetabling issues meaning a student cannot do French and economics or another combination. A small number of schools do not offer education at higher level in English, Irish and mathematics, which disadvantages the students in attendance. With the advent of remote learning, is it the intention of the Department to consider the possibility of expanding subject choices through remote learning so the physical walls of a school will no longer have to be a boundary? We are not living in 1950s Ireland. If somebody wants to do higher level Irish and a teacher is not available in the school, surely we can facilitate him or her. If somebody wants to do higher level mathematics and a teacher is not available in the school, surely we can facilitate that. If somebody has a timetable clash whereby French and another subject cannot both be studied, surely remote learning could be a solution and the Department could drive that.

The reform of the junior certificate process was quite tortuous and not really taken on board. There was a lot of misinformation. I am pretty scalded by it. I remember conversations about the reform of history. These were so misinformed that we were almost on the back foot before we started. I am referring to reasons given for banning history and history no longer being available, for example. It is my understanding there is a massive drop-off in the number of students who study history after junior certificate level. The number drops from something like 54,000 to 13,000, by comparison with that for geography, which drops from 54,000 to approximately 25,000. Am I right about the statistics? Are we still having a big problem with history? How do we feel that leaving certificate reform might advance the cause of subjects such as history? I could talk about the Irish language all day, but I will probably get another opportunity.