Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In recent months, we announced the acceleration of senior cycle reform so that students who will be beginning their leaving certificate in September 2025 will be the first cohort of students with the new reimagined senior cycle. There will be nine subjects in that space. They will be the science and business subjects and two new subjects, drama, film and theatre studies and climate action and sustainability. I will park the two new subjects for a moment. The other subjects are out to public consultation until the end of February, asking for people’s opinions and views on what is being proposed in those subjects and the new type of assessment that will be included. There will be at least 40% assessment that will be completed before they take the final exams in June. That is to recognise that students have so many different skills that we need to find a variety of ways to measure the skills whether it is creating or crafting a film, conducting an experiment, an oral presentation or whatever the case might be. That is one reason to show their diversity of skills. The second reason is to ensure they do not have all that enormous pressure on one day or one moment in June. Things are moving speedily along. The other two subjects will also go out to public consultation very shortly. There will be a very rounded representation and everyone will have the opportunity to looks at the specs. It is planned that the CPD or training for teachers will take place well in advance in the 2024-2025 school year, before September 2025 for the roll out of the subjects.