Mr. Ryan Sharpe:

I will touch on something the Deputy said about continuous assessments. I was part of the first year of students who did the new junior cycle. From the top of my head, we had two continuous assessments in business that we did throughout the year. Continuous assessments are a tool that is completely underutilised in the system. As Mr. Hugh Ahern said, they are a gateway to learn how to gain life skills in researching and developing an idea, and putting it into a format, in addition to learning how to show the world what you have.

Senator O'Loughlin said earlier that too much continuous assessment is bad, but it is important to find a balance because it is such a great tool to remove a lot of stress from the end of the year and spread it out during the year. It is not laid back to the point where students are not studying and not doing their work, but it is not stressful to the point where they cannot do the exam.