Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The leaving certificate year of 2022 did not have a normal two-year preparation for the leaving certificate examination. As a result, it is not fair to ask the students to sit a normal leaving certificate examination. The leaving certificate examination is specifically designed to allow for two years of preparation for it, and this obviously did not happen. Many students have lost at least three months of their face-to-face teaching and many teachers have been absent for significant periods of time during the period when the schools were open as well. Teachers will tell us that much of their core content is delivered in fifth year. Traditionally, very little new content is done in sixth year in the period after Christmas. Truth be told, many classes around the country at present still have new content to deal with in the months ahead.

The last two years have been a very difficult period for students. However, it has been different for different students. Some students have had a far harder experience than others. The technology disadvantage students have in respect of broadband access hurt many students in particular parts of the country. Many students, thankfully, come from backgrounds or households with high educational motivation. Those students are very lucky. When they did not have a teacher in front of them to motivate them, guide them or put pressure on them to do the right thing with regard to keeping up with their studies, they had a parent at home who was able to fulfil that role. Many of these students will do well as a result. However, for the students who do not have a background of high educational motivation, the loss of the teacher in the face-to-face, in-person setting was significant. It is a loss that will not be made up in the intervening time. It is very important to recognise some students will be significantly disadvantaged in the traditional leaving certificate examination setting if we continue with that.

I heard the Government mention that the junior certificate examination has not been sat by about 20% of students. As a result, there is less concrete guidance for teachers in predicting grades for students. However, the truth is students can change dramatically in the period between being a junior certificate student and a leaving certificate student. Many boys, especially, do much of their maturing in the period after the junior certificate examination and have a completely different set of emotional skills, maturity levels and circumstances when doing the leaving certificate. Using the junior certificate to judge the examinations of an individual will not be the right way for many to decide upon a predictive grade. To be honest, it is important to take into consideration that we need to make a decision on a student's ability, attitudes and focus now. In what other walk of life would we make a life-changing decision for a person on the basis of something the person did three years ago?

There is no doubt there are problems. There is significant grade inflation happening within the current system. The number of students achieving six H1 grades in the leaving certificate examination increased almost fivefold between 2019 and 2021. That is an incredible level of grade inflation. Grade inflation does not help anybody. It may well be the case the leaving certificate grades of the past couple of years will be trusted less by future employers because of the grade inflation. It may devalue those results in the eyes of employers. We must ensure the grades in the coming year are not outliers historically in terms of previous years' grades. I have also heard people in the university system say they felt that, due to grade inflation and the lack of examinations and practicals, the intake of first year students was not as well prepared for university last year. That is a problem as well. The lack of practical examinations and serious examinations weakens a student's ability to deal with the challenges of university. In Aontú we believe all practical elements of the courses should be completed. Most courses have a practical element so we must ensure that happens.

Finally, I give credit to the Minister for making sure the education system started in January after Christmas. When a lot of the world was looking for schools to be put on vacation for another two weeks, the Minister kept the schools open from the start of January. Maith thú.

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