Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue is that the Minister has brought us back to where we were three years ago because the original NCCA working group recommended a 60:40 divide with 60% being given to a written terminal examination and 40% being given to assessment. The former Minister just unilaterally ignored the NCCA working group and went off on his own singular move to say that we will abolish external certification and assessment in its entirety. He lost the teachers in the process. Three years later, the current Minister is essentially trying to regain lost ground. That is the net issue.

Nobody has any issue with the reform in terms of the content or substance of the learning processes or the idea of changing how we teach and learn across the junior certificate cycle. However, we should acknowledge that the assessment issue is an important principle because the ultimate fear is whether this will follow through to the leaving certificate and whether we will get a dumbed-down version of State assessment because national standards and a national curriculum are important. There are strengths the Irish education system has had. Key to underpinning those is a robust national certification programme and process. That can take many forms. I accept that nobody has a veto but no programme can be successfully or enthusiastically implemented if people are not enthusiastically engaged and on board. It is no fault of the Minister. I blame her predecessor. Much ground was lost in terms of rolling out this reform and getting it through because of the ham-fisted and appalling nature of its attempted implementation.

The Minister should stand back. There are other ways of cracking this. Other curricular reforms at senior certificate level, such as the leaving certificate applied, were introduced in other ways. The Minister should just stand back, stop saying "you have to be this or that", see whether we can get a working model that would satisfactorily resolve this and above all, prevent undue stress. It is stress for anyone doing the leaving certificate.

They want to be in school and focus on their examination preparations. It is regrettable that we are again facing a strike. Rather than following the dictum or advice, I suggest the Government stand back and look at more creative ways of resolving the issue. That could be done.

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