Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This is a useful debate because we are getting into the quality issues - the substantive issue of what education is about. We must ask what is the purpose of education. When I ask myself that question, the answer for me is to release in the child and student a hint of his or her own potential - just a hint. This is the spark where he or she says, "This is who I am and this is what I am capable of doing". That is only the beginning of a lifelong journey. So it is about giving them routes and wings. Literacy and numeracy are at that stage of giving them routes and wings. Believe it or not, I used to be a lecturer in literacy education although sometimes I forget that. The first four years are about learning to read and then one changes to reading to learn. This involves saying, "Here is the world and I'm going to read the world", which is phenomenal.

My life at the moment is an exam culture life. I have a child in first year who has a poor short-term memory and dyslexia. This morning, my husband was going through the Megalithic period in history with her. I thought, at some level, what did it matter if she never learned about it. My son is studying for his leaving certificate. I cannot even have a proper conversation with him about it because he says he is fed up with people asking him about it. He told me that even if he hitched a ride from Oranmore down to where we live, people would talk to him about it. So we never get into the real issue of what one would like to be or do, even though decisions must be made by January in terms of completing the CAO form.

Our educational culture is overly focused on examinations. Schools often reinforce failure and stereotypes because of the exclusive and excessive focus on examinations.

Some days ago, a mother told me an interesting story. Her little girl, who had learning difficulties in primary school, is quite creative. The girl, who is now in first year, helped her mother to pick out a hat and when she saw the lady making the hats, she said she could make them also. She asked her mother to ask the hat-maker whether she could work with her on a Saturday. On coming home, she asked whether she could have a window in which to display her hats to sell them. She said she should have chosen business. I refer to a child with learning difficulties who, because of encountering one activity that stimulated her creativity, put a world together for herself. This is phenomenal and we need to encourage it.

I fully agree with reforming the junior cycle to promote creative and critical thinking. As Senator Moran stated, literacy is not just about learning to read and write but also about learning to think critically, make decisions and be discerning. If this thinking is built into the junior cycle, it will be good.

I like the notion of continuous assessment. I am only sorry that in the case of my two children, it will not be realised sooner. I am being selfish in this regard. I worry about cramming. As Senator Reilly stated, one sometimes leaves an examination in the hope one will never have to encounter the subject again. I remember a teacher who told me how discouraging it was for him when a student, on finishing sixth class, dumped all his books into the bin for him to see. The pupil clearly did not value the learning and was never reached. This can be very upsetting.

The proposals are great on creative, critical thinking and continuous assessment. Short courses are wonderful. It will be exciting to see what courses the schools come up with themselves.

I am a proponent of Chinese because of globalisation. I hope to be involved with UCC in regard to tendering to produce the programme at second level.

The standard assessment tests are interesting. I had hoped the ratio of continuous assessment to State examinations at junior certificate level would be 60:40. I like the idea of the school certificate but all schools will not have the name of Blackrock College. There are approximately 750 second level schools.

I am concerned about the children who will drop out after the junior cycle, bearing in mind that one can legally drop out of school after 16. These children might have no State examination. They will have the standard assessment test, which is fair enough.