Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending. Anybody watching will be disappointed that the Minister for Education is not here but I understand this is because she is participating in the talks to try to finalise arrangements for the leaving certificate examinations.

From the start of the pandemic, which was almost a year ago, until now, 15 February, the Government has prioritised protecting lives and livelihoods. The allocation of €9 billion in the budget for education indicated that investment in both children and their education is a strong priority of the Government. For young people, this has been a really stressful year. We have had 12 months of a pandemic but young people have been living with it in a different way from adults. Young people, within their own families, have had to deal with the impact of infection. More than 200,000 people have been infected. Young people have had to live with the impact of their parents' loss of income and employment, and they have had to live with changed circumstances whereby they are trying to be educated remotely. I accept that there has been an improvement in this lockdown by comparison with the previous one in terms of the delivery of remote teaching but remote teaching is no substitute for classroom learning. The Minister of State would agree with that. He did very well from the point of view of education. He is a graduate of Trinity College and he also holds degrees from overseas. Therefore, he understands the value of education and how important the leaving certificate is for young people.

The members of the class of 2021 have lost five months of their senior cycle and have been denied the emotional and social supports that come with being in a classroom or in their school. They have been struggling to connect with broadband. Broadband is oversubscribed in many households because it is being used by siblings and parents who are trying to work. Many leaving certificate subjects have a practical component. Students in the class of 2021 have been denied the opportunity to have a practical learning experience. It is not just formal teaching they are missing out on; they are also missing out on informal learning from their peers, on the exchange of information, on sharing their struggles and on the identification of interesting parts of the curriculum or things that excite them.The mocks have gone, the orals are uncertain and it was devastating for these students to see adults and unions withdraw from talks. I am glad the talks have resumed and I appreciate they are confidential but I hope the Minister will update the House and the leaving cert students who I am sure are watching today and who are anxious for three things: clarity, certainty and choice. They are not unreasonable demands for the leaving cert students of the class of 2021 to be making.

I ask the Minister of State to talk when he is replying, if he can, about how the applied leaving cert will be managed. If he is in a position to give it, I would also appreciate some comment on the junior cert.