John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House. As a fellow teacher until I was elected to the House last year, I compliment her and her colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on the work they have done in the past 11 months in the Department in what have been the most challenging of times. The decision made on 17 February was most welcome and timely. It gave certainty to students, families, and the wider school community at a time when they were looking for it. I commend the Minister on that.

The hybrid option allowing students to take the accredited grade and-or sit the leaving certificate as normal and choose the best grade in each subject is a very good model in the context of 2021. I know some will call for it to continue beyond this year. The Minister will have to consider that difficult decision and I do not envy her the task. She might agree that allowing students to choose the better grade will more than likely have an inflationary impact on points this year. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, is working exceptionally hard, in conjunction with the Minister, to try to increase the number of places available on third level courses for the next academic year.

Section 3 deals with statutory indemnity.This is very important, particularly for those who have been providing tuition outside of the school setting. It is appropriate it has been inserted in the Bill. The protections in sections 4 and 5 with regard to canvassing are important for teachers. I do not anticipate them being used much, and I am sure the Minister will agree, but at the same time it is important to put them in place to safeguard the integrity of the entire process.

The removal of the rank order, which caused quite a lot of distress last year, is also very welcome. It demonstrates the Government has learned over the course of the pandemic. We need to implement what we have learned across the board. We need to have a deep dive after the pandemic, and many people have spoken about this in the Chamber, whereby we need to look at what we did right and what we did wrong and put in place measures in the event that we have another pandemic. It is to be hoped, please God and touch wood, we will not.

I would like to speak about the students of 2020 and 2021 and the wider school community that has been impacted drastically by the pandemic. I come from an educational setting and background and I am especially concerned about the impact and the levels of stress and anxiety, which had been rising before the pandemic ever came upon us. We have the growth of social media and outside influences on our young people. I am concerned for their well-being. We are doing a lot of work on reform of the junior certificate cycle with regard to well-being, but after the pandemic we need to look at putting in place particular measures and not just talking about understanding and knowing the impact it has on students.

We need tangible actions to be able to look after the students who have missed many milestones over the course of the pandemic. I am thinking about sixth class students who moved into first year and did not get to say goodbye to some friends who went to different secondary schools. People have missed out on debs and graduations. There are many milestones we all took for granted in our lives that are being missed by many students. We need to pause and reflect after the pandemic and put in place measures to address them. I commend the Minister on her work over the past 11 months and wish all of our students, staff and parents well in the coming weeks and months with regard to the leaving certificate.