Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This morning I want to give a shout out to everybody sitting the leaving certificate exams. There are about halfway through what is, by any standard, a testing process. I believe Ireland is unique in our leaving certificate. It is a rite of passage here. In these circumstances, in this weather, it is extremely trying for anyone sitting the exams.

There was a very significant upset last week with maths paper 1. The Minister for Education needs to give a strong direction to the State examinations board and to all of those involved with setting the leaving certificate examinations to emphasise to them that the leaving certificate should be an opportunity for students to show all they know and all of they have learned, and show the investment that their teachers, their schools and their parents have made in their education. It should not be set up for them to fail. It should not be set up to test them on what they do not know. It should not be something that ends in a very significantly damaging process. I am really hopeful that when those exam papers are examined, there will be a correction and an acknowledgement that the maths paper 1 was exceptionally difficult and was not set up to prepare the students to succeed. The students who sat that exam, and those who sit all of the exams this summer, will know that this exam is only one step on their journey and that they will all go on to do much greater things in their lives. I wish them all well. I congratulate them, their parents and their teachers in getting them this far.