Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will secure a choice for the leaving certificate 2022 between calculated grades and written exams to ensure fairness for the class of 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4818/22]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Tonight leaving certificate students and their families are hurt, frustrated and angry. I have received many emails, phone calls and messages and, to be honest, many students are absolutely gutted. They made it very clear the disruption to learning, the stress and anxiety, and the challenges in covering the course have been so significant that a hybrid model was the only way to ensure fairness, and I agree.

The disruption to learning and the challenges in covering the course have been so significant that they felt, and I agree, that a hybrid model was the only way to ensure fairness. Instead, last night, via leaks in the media, which in itself shows some disrespect, they were told that their views had not been listened to and had been disregarded. Why has the Minister not taken on what students have said and offered the choice that was delivered successfully last year?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In recent weeks, I have attended a meeting with the advisory group on State examinations, which has representatives of students, parents, teachers, managerial bodies, the further and higher education sector, and the State Examinations Commission, SEC. Following on from this meeting, I met with the members of the advisory group on a bilateral basis and also had further engagement with each of them thereafter. I have listened carefully to what each of these stakeholders has had to say and examined each of their points.

Following consideration of this matter by the Government today, I announced the decision to operate an examinations approach for the leaving certificate in 2022, with significant further adjustments to the examinations; and to provide students with a commitment that the overall results of the leaving certificate in 2022 will not be lower than in 2021. As the Deputy may be aware, it would not have been possible to run accredited grades in the same manner as last year, as junior cycle data was unavailable for one in four students.

The further extensive changes I have announced to the examination papers, over and above those announced in August 2021, means that candidates have greater choice in the papers; have fewer questions to answer and still have the same amount of time as in a normal year to complete the examination. For example, in both mathematics papers, instead of having to answer all ten questions, candidates will only have to answer six. This is in addition to previously announced changes such as the running of the oral examinations and music practical over the first week of the Easter break.

Timeframes for certain assessment elements of the leaving certificate applied examinations have also been pushed out. Schools were also reminded of the flexibilities regarding the dates for completion and authentication of examination coursework. I have also confirmed that junior cycle examinations will take place this summer. Adjustments to the assessment arrangements for junior cycle were published in August 2021 and provide for more teaching time in schools. They include a reduction in the number of classroom-based assessments to be completed, the removal of the requirement to complete assessment tasks and adjustments to the requirements in coursework and practical performance tests.

I believe the decision that has been made will provide leaving certificate students of 2022 with an opportunity for their learning and attainment at the end of their post-primary education to be assessed and will enable them to progress to the next stage of their lives. It also provides the certainty and clarity in this matter that had been requested.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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We will take it that the Minister agreed that it was warranted to look at the hybrid model. I will take that at face value given that the Minister had meetings around it and she explored it. The reasons that have been advanced against the hybrid model first assume that the leaving certificate is itself equitable in a given year, but that is not true. It is not entirely without merits but it has significant flaws. The other argument was that grade inflation would be too high. Today this has been turned on its head by the Government. Before now, the only people talking about it as a problem for this year's cohort were members of the Opposition. The other issue relates to standardisation. I do not believe that was insurmountable. I wrote to the Minister last week outlining solutions for the quarter of the students for whom we do not have a baseline - we have a baseline for three quarters of them - and how we could fill in that quarter. I do not believe that any of these obstacles was the problem. I believe there was a view within the Department that the idea that the leaving certificate could be changed was gathering too much steam and that we needed to draw a line under it and get back to the leaving certificate as usual. I think this was the wrong approach.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As I outlined, I have engaged with all the stakeholders, including parents, students, teachers and school management bodies. I have listened to the proposals they put on the table and evaluated each one of them. They were primarily around making additional changes to the written papers - the exams as we know them - and I answered that. Substantial additional changes have been made to the papers. I was also asked to consider grade inflation. I am amazed that the only people the Deputy heard speaking about grade inflation were from the Opposition. In fact, grade inflation was raised by many people around the table, including students. I have addressed the issue of grade inflation.

The matter of accredited grades was also raised. We did look at it. It is important that there be comparability or standardisation as part of the accredited grades process. It is important that the data available are the data belonging to the students, as was the case last year, because that is the fairest. Because of the absence of data, we were not in a position for accredited grades to be as fair as they were last year to the class of 2021.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Standardisation applies to the class cohort when you are trying to fill in a gap to achieve a baseline. It is not that the lack of individual results for that student, if it can be filled in, affects that individual student, but the Minister knows that.

The point I am making on grade inflation is that until today the Government was presenting grade inflation as a reason not to do it, whereas the Minister has now built in a form of grade inflation. Maybe that is a mitigation that is needed with the model she has chosen but that was not an argument that was being advanced by anyone about this cohort except the Opposition and students.

Additional choice in the papers could have been accommodated with the hybrid model. I see no reason you could not have the written exam with additional choices in the paper. The problem is that teachers do not teach the course in the same way and schools did not experience Covid in the same way. All schools had to close but the impact of those closures was affected by factors such as access to devices. Some schools would have had different absences of teachers and students. State examinations cannot tailor the choices of individual students to take into account their different circumstances.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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What has been set out today is that there will be additional choice which means there is greater time and less content required to be studied to take these exams in June. We are not just talking about the written exams but also the orals and practical exams. There have been accommodations along the line there. That was a chief consideration for the students and one they raised consistently around the table. They felt that the class of 2022 could not compete with the class of 2021 because of grade inflation. A concession was rightly made to acknowledge that grade inflation for the class of 2022 would be on a par with that of 2021.

On accredited grades, at the heart of it, the students wanted it to be fair. To afford students accredited grades would not be as fair as I would like when we do not have the data that are necessary for standardisation or comparability.