Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today, the State Examinations Commission, SEC, will be meeting to discuss the arrangements for the leaving certificate and junior certificate examinations this year.I want to support the Irish Second-Level Students Union, and secondary students generally, who are very unhappy with the arrangements that are being put in place for the leaving certificate this year. I support their call, which the Leader has also sought, for the hybrid option to be put in place. I believe that the students need fairness, clarity, an answer and a commitment today. It is only fair.

The past 22 months have been very challenging for everybody. I acknowledge that every school community has played its part. I also want to acknowledge the Minister for Education and her Department because hundreds of millions of euro in extra funding have been provided by the Government to open schools and ensure they are safe. That is really welcome. However, the only people at the end of this pandemic whose performance will be graded will be leaving certificate students. The grades that they receive will affect their next steps in life. I refer to the important part of life when people are young adults and about to leave school and set out into the world in an independent way. We need to support them with clarity and fairness.

I believe that they deserve the hybrid model option. I also believe that the State Examinations Commission should make a decision today to put the hybrid model in place until such time as there has been two years of uninterrupted senior cycle secondary school because of the associated realities. Covid is not just a physical illness. There is all of the emotional damage that, potentially, comes with it. We do not know what the long-term effects will be. It is not just the students who are affected; it is all of the teachers and SNAs and all of the school community. Many people have been bereaved. There are physical lasting effects. There are emotional lasting effects. It is unrealistic to suggest that this pandemic is going to end as easily as turning off a switch.

I ask the State Examinations Commission to be compassionate and fair and to give a commitment today to retain the hybrid model for 2022 and leave it in place until there has been two years of uninterrupted education in secondary schools.