Mr. Barry Slattery:

Much of it is to do with the stakes, although it is very difficult to change culture. I agree with Ms Feeney that we need to be very careful about the CAO system and what could replace it because there could be nasty unintended consequences. Nevertheless, we heard throughout the review that whatever redevelopments in the senior cycle are to take place, in parallel with diversifying pathways, introducing new curriculum components and broadening the assessment arrangements, we will also need to consider the transition arrangements, in particular for students progressing from post-primary to higher education.

All of us have a role to play in all of our discussions. Even today, the emphasis is very much on talking about equity, meaning equity of access to higher education. There are so many other issues relating to equity. This is not a critisicism of anybody here but what was never mentioned was there are students in junior cycle who are following level 1 and level 2 learning programmes. They do not even have access to a senior cycle programme, as we speak. One of the things we are going to prioritise in the review is developing a follow-on programme for students who are currently following level 1 and level 2. In all of our discourse it needs to be about more than progression to higher education and looking at diversifying pathways as well.