Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the Minister for Education and Skills about the position facing fifth years, the leaving certificate class of 2021, and also the sixth years who have just left schools, the leaving certificate class of 2020. I had an exchange with the Taoiseach earlier today. I asked him about changes being planned regarding the leaving certificate in 2021 to take account of these students having lost quite a lot of face-to-face time with their teachers in recent months.

The Taoiseach said that there are changes afoot and students will be given more choice in leaving certificate examinations next year to take account of the fact that students will be unable to complete the curriculum. I think the students listening to that reply from the Taoiseach would welcome the fact that changes are being made but would like a bit more information before making up their minds on the matter. The devil will be in the detail. How broad and sweeping will those changes be? What degree of choice will students be given? When will students know precisely what the changes are? That is an important issue.

The Taoiseach also said that there will be constant engagement with the cohort of leaving certificate students to ease any concerns or anxieties they may have. What exactly does that mean? If the proposed changes and increased level of choice for students are put out there and a majority of students are unhappy with the proposals because they do not think the changes are deep enough or the choices wide enough, does that mean the ball comes back over the net into the court of the Minister and the Department? Will the students be listened to and more changes made? If it does not mean that, is the engagement with students meaningless? I welcome the fact that there will be engagement with leaving certificate students to ease their concerns and anxieties but we need to see what that will look like if the students are not happy with the proposed changes. We will keep a close eye on that.

The result of the leaving certificate examinations for students who have just finished secondary school will only be made known on 7 September, as opposed to mid-August as is usually the case. They will be getting their results three weeks late and that will cause stress and anxiety. It means that students moving to third level will not have induction courses in many cases and will be starting courses in college significantly later than would otherwise have been the case. Students who must organise accommodation for themselves will be put in a particularly difficult situation. It is one thing if students know for sure what college they are going to but if they receive their results on 7 September and the first round of offers through the Central Applications Office are made on 11 September, some students will only then know which college they will be attending. Such students will be under real pressure to sort out accommodation in time for the start of their courses. Why is it that despite schools meeting their deadlines for getting grades and percentages into the Department of Education and Skills there will be a three-week delay in the distribution of examination results? That does not add up and I would like to hear an explanation for it.

I wish to also make some points about class sizes. It is a straightforward issue. The average class size in Ireland is 26 students while the European average is 20. That is a damning indictment of the Governments of recent years but also indicates the size of the opportunity to recruit teachers on a large scale in order to reduce the size of classes and make schools safer during the Covid-19 pandemic. I do not think the steps that have been taken are anywhere near enough.

I want to focus on the question of the circular and what it says about special educational needs teachers. The idea is that they will be used to cover classes as substitute teachers when a teacher is not there. They may not be the substitutes of first resort because they will come from the supply panels but other speakers in this debate have made the point that the supply panels are not nearly big enough to cover the demand for substitute teachers that will exist. That means, therefore, that special educational needs teachers will be taken away from their special educational duties and used as substitutes in our schools next year. That is not good news for children with autism spectrum disorder or who do not have English as their first language and are attended by special educational teachers. If I were a parent of such a child, I would be very concerned with the contents of the circular. We need to hire many more teachers on the supply panels and in the special educational needs category to work in our schools.

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