Ms Arlene Forster:

To build on this I will go back to one of the points we made in our opening statement. We are redeveloping the curriculum for 11 years of a young person's education. This is significant when we think of the journey a young person takes from early years to the end of senior cycle. In this there are key opportunities for us to build on the successes we already have in STEM education and to push the boat out a little in terms of what we know about good teaching and learning. We have spoken about computer science as an example of success in this area.

We are at a time of great opportunity to build on this and to push ahead and be as innovative and creative as we can be over the next while. I refer to the work happening in senior cycle at present. One aspect of the redevelopment of senior cycle is looking at building flexible pathways for young people through senior cycle. We are in the early stages of doing this. There are great opportunities to try to find ways of ensuring that every young person has access to and an opportunity to continue their STEM education if that is the choice he or she makes. It is about looking at different ways of providing this for young people that make a stronger connection between their experience in senior cycle and the choices they make after school and pathways they follow after school. There are many opportunities in this. We have a lot we can build upon. As Ms O'Connor said, the discussions of the committee in this area will be very helpful to us.