Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have just left the meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills where we had quite the discussion on an issue relevant to the Minister and to many junior cycle students and their parents as we near the end of the first term of the school year, which is the worry and uncertainty about the distinct possibility that because of the Government's ongoing dispute with the ASTI, thousands of students will automatically lose marks in their English examination next summer. Two weeks ago before the same committee, the Minister said he could not guarantee that students taught by ASTI teachers would not lose out on 10% of their English grade if the dispute affects their ability to participate in classroom-based assessments. As it stands, we have no confirmation from him that every junior certificate student will be assessed equally and awarded an equal grade for equal quality of work, regardless of the union to which their English teacher belongs, and this is simply not good enough.

Alternative models are in operation, which could help solve this problem and provide a guarantee to students that they will not be adversely affected. For example, students who do not participate in oral examinations in junior cycle languages have their written examinations marked out of 100. This means students who do not take an oral component in a language examination do not automatically lose marks. This, or another model, may not be ideal but I ask the Minister to accept the urgent need to have a contingency plan in place. Such a plan requires a great deal of preparation. Will the Minister outline the steps he is taking to make sure these students do not suffer because of a dispute that does not involve them?

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform referred in his budget contribution to fairness and said we are on a pathway to a just and fair society. He said fairness is about investment in education and education is the bedrock of our society. He spoke about access to education and how it has transformed our society and he is right. As John F. Kennedy said, education should be the greatest equaliser of them all. However, for all the Minister's talk of fairness, it is essential that we realise that the most important investment is in our children and in our students and that fairness means we must, first and foremost, make sure they are all treated equally.

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