Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate that we are all very conscious of the difficulties of the past two years for the education sector and for wider society, but most specifically in this instance for our students. As I have previously outlined to the House, I have engaged with students, parents, teachers and school management bodies. The were four key points consistently raised by students, including the necessity to have clarity, which we have provided today. We were in a position to do that earlier this year than was achieved last year. The second point was that they would have greater choice in the examination papers. As I have outlined to the Deputy, we have achieved that for them. There is a significantly different examination being experienced by students in 2022 than was experienced by those in 2018 or 2019.

The issue of grade inflation was a key point highlighted by students. Again, I have given the commitment today that the grade inflation of 2021 will be on a par for the class of 2022. On the accredited grades process and the issues around that, we did do work on that. There is an issue around the fact that one in four students do not have the junior cycle data.

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