Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to answer as many of the Deputy's questions as I can in the short time available to me. I will ensure she gets a formal response to any that are unanswered. I agree with her regarding the impact in terms of the primary school transition. I re-emphasise that we had a meeting this morning with our officials on that issue. We are getting a lot of correspondence from both parents and teachers and I will keep the House updated if there is any development in that regard.

The Deputy is correct about the stress on leaving certificate students. There was a lot of anxiety, confusion and speculation because of the environment in which we had a lot of students preparing for a June exam. Within a short period of time following the lockdown, on 10 April, we announced that we would be postponing the exams.

There was a period of preparation as to what those exams would look like. A lot of students had their minds made up. Some Deputies in this House had their minds made up in that regard at a very early stage. However, there was also a preference among education stakeholders, myself included, and the majority of Deputies in the House that we should still try to find a way to hold written exams. When that became impossible, obviously there was still uncertainty. There has been a lot of uncertainty and speculation. I hope that we will work very thoroughly on the calculated grade model to ensure that certainty is provided that this is the right model.

The Deputy referred to standardisation. It is good to raise such issues because we want fairness and completeness, but as far as I am concerned from the meetings I have attended and the knowledge I have at this stage, it is quite clear that students in private schools, for example, will not be advantaged and community, DEIS and disadvantaged schools, to which the Deputy referred in particular, will not be disadvantaged. I remember meeting a teacher in Larkin community college in inner city Dublin last year who was doing a pathways in technology, P-TECH, programme and she talked about visible progression year to year, not in three or five-year bundles or ten-year timeframes. If there is progression year to year we have to record that and use the mathematical modelling to ensure that if any student is disadvantaged, which I do not think will happen, protection is in place. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue, but as far as I am concerned, school profiling will not be done in the way some have said.

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