Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I have said, the Department and I, as Minister for Education, are acutely aware of the disruption caused to all students as a result of school closures arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. From 11 January 2021, all students engaged in a programme of remote learning with their schools and I express appreciation to schools for managing that.

Students who have just completed fifth year and who are due to take leaving certificate examinations in 2022 have experienced a degree of disruption to their learning. In these circumstances, it was considered that some level of adjustment to the normal leaving certificate assessment arrangements should be made for them that would be proportionate to their experience and be educationally appropriate. Given where these students were at in their studies at the time of each school lockdown period, the impact of the loss of tuition time is less than that experienced by those students who sat the leaving certificate this year. To be fair to the class of 2022, there has been a loss of in-person teaching and learning.

I am pleased to say that yesterday, the advisory group on planning for State examinations received an update on the 2022 leaving certificate and junior cycle examinations. I announced that the level of adjustment to the assessment arrangements for the 2022 leaving certificate examination cohort would be broadly the same as that applied by the assessment arrangements for leaving certificate examinations for 2021, as set in December 2020. These arrangements were announced before the second period of school closures. Additional changes will be made to that document to reflect syllabus content specific the 2022 examinations. The revised document will be published later this month.

I also announced yesterday that the SEC will run an alternative set of leaving certificate examinations in 2022, shortly following the main set of examinations. The SEC will set out the eligibility conditions for these examinations, which will be limited to certain students who are unable to sit the main set of examinations due to close family bereavement, Covid-19 illness etc. during those examinations, and certain other categories of serious illness to be clearly and strictly delineated. The SEC will issue further details regarding these examinations, with all arrangements guided by prevailing public health advice, which is a key priority. There will be further engagement with stakeholders in this matter.

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