Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a range of them and I will not get through them all, but I will ensure that Deputies will get individual responses and answers back to them. Deputy Ó Laoghaire raised a specific individual case and I will ensure that is replied to. The Deputy also has concerns around how the calculated grade process will work.

The school-calculated grade is the primary process in determining the results of the individual students. That pressure is not singularly on the teacher. He or she will have to sit down with his or her teaching colleague within the school. If it is an art teacher and there is no colleague, that teacher will sit down with the deputy principal and the next part of the alignment process will go to the principal. There is a whole-school alignment process to ensure that the two years of the student's work will be measured and calculated in a way that is reflected in the professional judgment of the teacher.

We have set up the new executive office because we have to have a process within the Department. I am very encouraged by the intensity of work that has happened already and that has brought us to this stage. Dr. Áine Lawlor will be a key person to ensure, along with others in the new office, that there is a standard. If the State is going to allow calculated grades to be used as a certified leaving certificate, which it will be doing, the likes of UCAS will demand a State certification, which is why there has to be a national standard. Schools in Bandon have to be treated the same way as schools in Boyle.

The importance of the national standard is that all schools will be in a system and a process to ensure that the results that come from a school will be sacrosanct. Nevertheless, we have to have a standard because we cannot have some teachers marking leniently and others harshly. It is not just a case of students being downgraded. There is also a chance that they will be pulled up.

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