Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am sorry to say the previous time she was here I was forced to leave immediately after my presentation and the same will happen today as I have a committee to attend.

Before I speak on education in this public forum, it is important to recognise the professionalism of Dr. Tony Holohan. After the way he has been maligned over the past few days it is encouraging to hear that he and his team have acted professionally at all times and at no stage leaked anything to the media. Those who did have much to answer for.

The clarification provided by the Minister today is welcome. While the issue was widely reported in the press, we needed a statement from the Minister and her Department. At the outset, let me acknowledge that the procurement process and final decision making did not take place on the Minister's watch and that she has acted professionally at all times in the way she has handled this problem.

It has been a terrible year for the leaving certificate class of 2020. Even a normal leaving certificate is one of the most stressful events in young people’s lives. This year, however, students have had to endure uncertainty, social isolation and months of studying alone at home. On top of this, students were guinea pigs for an untested and untried marking regime and faced into it all with bravery, hope and a great deal of trust in the system.

From the outset, the system threw up anomalies such as how to mark those who had been home schooled or who had taken on additional subjects outside of school. As a teacher, the Minister will be familiar with these things. It was inevitable that many issues would arrive on the steps of the courts, something that a few students, or their parents, have envisaged. There will be many more cases to come. However, what about the disadvantaged student whose parents cannot afford to go to the courts and seek a resolution should that person feel he or she has a case? That is really heartbreaking when one thinks about it.

The recent coding fiasco resulted in 6,100 students receiving grades lower than they deserved and 7,943 students who gained a place with incorrectly assessed grades. It is a new nightmare for those involved. Those who were downgraded have now received a new higher grade and those who have been graded higher than they should have been have already secured places. What will happen to those who received the correct grades but may have missed out on places on other courses? I understand that more than 450 new CAO offers will be sent today to those affected by the grading error. For some, this will be welcome, but for others it will just increase stress. Take, for example, a student who wanted a place in a university in Dublin and finished up taking a place in a university in Galway or Cork. That student now finds he or she would have secured the place in Dublin but has incurred costs in moving to Galway or Cork and paid for accommodation up front and whatever else is incurred in the move. It must be heartbreaking for them and their families.

It beggars belief that the procurement process was not opened out to seek bids from Irish companies. We have a brilliant and flourishing IT sector in this country and I cannot understand why the contract was given to a Canadian company as the sole vendor. I have no doubt that the company involved is highly reputable and competent but others should have been invited to tender.

The decision not to make the code open source was done with the tracing app. Why was it not done with the app for the grading system? One of the key things about making the code open source is that it threw up anomalies and problems with the tracing software that is used. That might have happened if it was made open source.

I wish to put on the record my thanks to the teachers of Ireland who continued to teach, mentor and counsel leaving certificate students, and students at all levels, throughout the lockdown and who marked them fairly. The Minister will recall during my time as president of the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, there was extreme resistance to getting involved in grading students in any way so our teachers have really gone a long way to support the system. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Teachers Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary Teachers, ASTI, for their commitment to their students which is vitally important.

The young people are now embarking on another exciting chapter of their lives in further and higher education. I wish them good health and every success. For those who find themselves at a crossroads and who are wondering if they should come back to Dublin or stay in Cork, Galway or wherever, I wish them the best. I am hopeful that a solution can be found and that the Minister's Department will ensure their families do not incur additional costs.

I wish to address a couple of things before I finish, one of which is the transmission of Covid-19 within the schools. It is a little hard to believe that Covid-19 does not get transmitted in schools. Of course it does. It gets transmitted on public transport and school transport. While driving down the road the other day I saw one of the schools emptying out at four o'clock in the evening and large groups of students were literally shoulder to shoulder walking down the street. No school can stop that happening. The fact of whether they get it at home or at school does not matter. What matters is the response to anybody who is infected.

The other issue is with respect to where we are right now. If the predictions we hear from NPHET come to pass, we may find ourselves having to close schools again. I ask two things of the Minister. One is that she look into the possibility of a single portal run by the Department of Education and Skills that will continue to deliver education programmes to those who are out of school for whatever reason. The second thing I ask of the Minister today is to engage. I read an article entitled "Here's a solution to remote learning if schools shut: the humble TV" which was written by Dr. Triona Hourigan, a teacher at Laurel Hill Secondary School in County Limerick and Dr. Ann Marcus-Quinn, a lecturer in technical communications and structural design at the University of Limerick, UL. I ask the Minister to invite both of those people to her office to discuss with them what they might have to offer to the education system should we face a closedown. I have only read the article and I do not know the two people involved. The article, however, is extremely impressive and both people seem to be well advanced in the areas of electronic learning and blended learning which is something I introduced in my teaching career as far back as 1996. I ask the Minister to consider meeting those two people.