Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I kept an open mind on this because I am no expert. I listened to the students and academics from third level institutions. The more I listened to them, the more I came down on the side of the students. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward because it is important that we hear some of the opinions we are hearing.

Tomorrow we will have statements on mental health among the youth. That is significant. Mental Health Reform represents 76 organisations. It has taken the trouble to write to all of us ahead of tomorrow's debate to point out the impact on many areas of society affected by mental health. It has provided about ten bullet points, one of which is the detrimental impact of Covid on the lives of children in Ireland. I do not need to tell the Minister that; she is more than aware of it. It is interesting that we will have that debate tomorrow and we are considering this motion today.

Sinn Féin has been very reasonable. It is a moderate motion. After noting and recognising certain matters, it simply calls on the Minister to place the voice of students at the centre of the debate on the leaving certificate. That is not an unreasonable call by Sinn Féin, and I have no hesitation in supporting the motion in order to secure a choice for leaving certificate students in 2022 between calculated grades and written examinations, and for the Minister to take decisive action. Decisive action is very important, given what young people are facing.

All of the facts have been set out. I will not go through all of them again, but some of them jump out. Some 36,159 students have contracted Covid since schools opened in 2020 and an incalculable number of students have been identified as close contacts. I thank students and the ISSU for their approach. We are always talking about science and basing things on evidence. The ISSU went to the trouble of doing research and finding out people's opinions. Not alone that, it did so under pressure and set out the information for us in a very clear way. The returns on that piece of research are staggering. It showed that 67.81% of senior cycle students preferred a hybrid model.

Students are not just dealing with the stress of the leaving certificate, which every speaker has said. None of us would like to go back and do the leaving certificate, which tells a tale in itself. Outside of Covid, we need a proper debate on the best way to assess students instead of an examination that causes such stress. Students have pointed out that the stress of the leaving certificate while going through a global pandemic has impacted on education, in terms of the toll on their mental health. Students noted the negative impact on their mental health and so on.

The report from the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science released in January 2021 refers to the impact of Covid-19 on primary and secondary education and made a number of recommendations. It set out some facts, such as trauma and mood disorders like depression being identified as significant factors leading to early school leaving. Ireland does not provide in-school emotional counselling, therapeutic supports and so on. The report highlighted the deficiencies in the system.

I listened to some third level commentators justify not having a hybrid system this year by stating that certain students would get a mark that they do not deserve and brighter students who should have received higher marks would be disadvantaged. I thought that was a very weak argument and totally ignored how unbalanced and unequal the leaving certificate is in terms of those who can get private tuition, grinds and so on for their children What about that imbalance? Perhaps those students are not able for third level courses without all of the extra backup they have. That was not taken into account by the academics who spoke. Having kept an open mind, at this point I am coming down in favour of the students. I thank Sinn Féin.

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