Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has another question later on. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is looking at this matter. I agree that it is hard to teach science on the basis of a memory retention exam at the end. It is very much suited to continuous assessment. There are issues around continuous assessment, with teachers' unions and teachers themselves concerned with judging their own students. That has resulted in the framework that we now have in the junior cycle where there is separate portfolio of achievement and SEC supervised exams. I hope that model will have a very good impact on the junior cycle.

Science in particular does lend itself to a different approach. Hopefully some consensus will emerge which will lead to different formats of assessment in the future. We will await the NCCA's report.

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