Mr. Dalton Tattan:

On the issue of the teachers, perhaps Ms O'Connor may want to come in at the end in terms of anything else she wants to say about SFI or STEM. I would say generally, and this is a learning we took out of some of the junior cycle experience, that we need to find ways to really support teachers well in the context of senior cycle review. Much of that comes down to time and ensuring that they have the time they need to engage when there is development work going on and where there is change happening. Members of the committee mentioned the pressure that is faced in schools all the time. There just has not been the time at all. There probably was not before and there certainly has not been over the last 18 months for teachers out there. We must find ways to ensure that we can support the curriculum of reform we want. Teachers need to be properly enabled and some of that, which we talked about a couple of minutes ago, is about giving schools a sort of autonomy about innovation when it comes to digital. It is about being able to listen to schools. Schools in some ways have a lot of shared experiences and challenges but they are also unique. The Senator spoke about the school in Ballinasloe as being just one example. Lots of different schools have different strengths and they also have challenges they face. Finding ways, therefore, to support the group of teachers and that speak to them is important. We need to find ways to be able to be adaptive to do that and, as I said, give them the time as well.

On the student voice, the Irish Second-Level Students Union, ISSU, is represented on the examinations advisory group. Outside of the more formal structures that we use to engage on exam issues, we also have direct engagement with the secondary students union. We had one such engagement recently in regard to 2022. In the context of 2021, we found that voice hugely enriching in terms of the thinking that we needed to give to our response with regard to the disruption that happened at the beginning of the year in January and February. That engagement will continue. We expect that we will be meeting the group again very soon, particularly to discuss the oral examinations and how they will operate for the current leaving certificate students. Ms O'Connor might want to add something on the SFI piece.