Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Murphy and others in praising the Minister for how she has handled a very difficult situation and for doing it with transparency. At all times she put the student at the heart of the process. We must always ask of the Minister for Education and Skills that he or she is always thinking of the students.

This is a discussion on leaving certificate 2020 and the decision to use a particular algorithm for decision-making. Senator O'Loughlin and others have various questions about procurement, but I think there is a bigger question for the Government in circumstances where a decision is made to engage in algorithmic decision-making or machine learning. I would like to know what direct input or oversight there was in the drawing up of the algorithm from the Department and experts there. Are we moving towards having a public policy on algorithmic decision-making? That is not just relevant to the Department of Education and Skills, it is relevant across the Government. Was an audit carried out by the Department or the Government of the algorithm prior to it being used? It is always very easy to look at auditing afterwards. I am not talking about the auditing of the procurement process, I am talking about an audit of the algorithm and who carried it out. In terms of good practice in that area, it must be very clear with regard to conditions of service that there is transparency in the process. There have been a number of useful cases taken by the Dutch Government in respect of the need for clarity in respect of how algorithms work. We should learn from this process that when it comes to algorithmic decision-making and machine learning, there needs to be a cross-Government approach.

I welcome the work of the Government and the higher education institutions in terms of ensuring that the 424 students who were affected were offered places in round 4. I concur with the point colleagues have made that it is also now essential that we start to get clarity on leaving certificate 2021, and that there is engagement at all times with all of the stakeholders but in particular the students. I hope the Minister will keep the Irish Second-Level Students Union informed. As Senator Ruane and others stated, it is very clear that we cannot continue to use the model we used in 2020 for 2021. It is now time for reform of the leaving certificate more generally. We have used the same model since 1925. The commission on the points system was chaired by Professor Áine Hyland in 1999 and there was work by the Higher Education Authority and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in 2011 on reform. The system is clearly not fit for purpose. In her response, the Minister might look at identifying what changes we can make for 2021 and a general reform of the leaving certificate process.