Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Is deas dom an deis seo an tAire a cheistiú don chéad uair sa Dáil seo. These are certainly testing times for the Minister and I wish him well in his responsibility to oversee the leaving certificate in 2020. Today, students should be sitting English paper 2, which would include their comparative studies, but that is not the case. I wish the State Examinations Commission, which is working in unison with Dr. Harold Hislop in the Department, and the various teams of teachers that are collaborating with their colleagues in schools across the country this week to finalise the initial sets of predicted grades for their leaving certificate students well in their work. This is a novel departure for our post-primary sector and, like many issues currently, it is one that has been brought about directly as a result of Covid-19. I am sure the NCCA will maintain a watching brief on how this progresses. Of course, it has been charged with the task of reforming leaving certificate assessments and accreditations such that students at the end of the senior cycle are primed for further study in the 21st century.

The Minister recently referred to the potential emergence of blended learning in our schools in the 2020-2021 academic year. That will require a digital upgrade in classrooms. Although it is true to say that the clár dubh is giving way to smart boards in many places, it is not true to say we are close to finishing that transition nationwide. We should extend this digital upgrade to the summer colleges sna Gaeltachtaí timpeall na tíre. Sadly, those custodians of the language will not be in a position to accept students in person this year. Some of the colleges are making efforts to move their courses online. It is fantastic to see this ingenuity operate in real time. Summers in the Gaeltacht offer many their first independent stint away from home and it is unfortunate that this rite of passage has been put on pause as part of the new normal, ach tiocfaidh an céilí mór arís, gan dabht.

The necessity of digitally upgrading our schools speaks directly to the European Commission's plans to help repair and prepare member states' economies for the future. Next Generation EU is the recovery instrument that will be employed at this juncture. The stimulus will be of the order of €750 billion, the details of which were outlined in Brussels this week by the Commission President, Ms Ursula von der Leyen.

There is a dual aspect to this instrument, namely, the fact that, along with the digital upgrade, the Commission wants to see this recovery being one that is rooted in green initiatives. The EU wants member states to set out in detail their plans in this regard. Our students are already discussing the welfare of the planet in CSPE and geography classes, and An Taisce, through the green schools award, has brought to the fore the importance of environmental management in the minds of teenagers. Schools are developing sustainable systems that respect the importance of protecting water resources and the role of proper waste management.

As we know, when the order came for schools to close, in keeping with the NPHET advice, schools and colleges had to move their teaching overnight onto the cloud, and this was a considerable undertaking which our teachers met with distinction. New systems were put in place to allow teachers to interact with students remotely. As the Minister alluded to previously, social distancing may require a level of remote teaching to continue into the coming academic year. The winds of change are bringing students and teachers to new places. The European Commission recognises that these new worlds will be more digital and will also need to be greener. This could involve retrofitting school buildings, where appropriate, and the roll-out of digital exams in the future, where equity of access can be achieved. If we are prepared for this change, we can benefit in our schools from the fact gur olc an ghaoth nach séideann maith do dhuine éigin.

Accepting that it is very early in the process, what preparation is the Department of Education and Skills currently making to help Ireland in its application to the next generation fund?

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