James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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69. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when he will conduct a review of the leaving certificate science curriculum in view of the fact that students who commenced their second level education in 2016 have commenced the new junior cycle science curriculum. [16714/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the Leaving Certificate Science subjects, new draft specifications for Leaving Certificate Biology, Chemistry and Physics have been prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). A very important feature of these new specifications is the introduction of practical assessment components. The NCCA has recommended that, in each of these subjects, there should be a 90-minute, externally-assessed practical examination, attracting 30% of the overall marks for the Leaving Certificate examination. Candidates will be directly assessed by observation of how they perform the practical activities and indirectly assessed through a subsequent assessment of the work they generate.

As this is a new development, the specifications have been approved by my Department, on a provisional basis, pending a trial of the assessment arrangements. The State Examinations Commission (SEC), in consultation with the NCCA, has been asked by my Department to carry out this trial and preparations are well underway. The trial is planned to take place during the fourth quarter of 2017, as outlined in my Department's Action Plan for Education 2017, and is likely to involve approximately twenty-five schools. The SEC has, in the past week, issued an invitation to schools to take part in the trial. Students from Leaving Certificate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes will participate. In some schools the trial will be in just one of the subjects, while others will have the trial practical examination in two or all three subjects. This is to ensure that the feasibility and implications of running such examinations in all three subjects are properly assessed.

In addition to these developments, the NCCA has completed a new subject specification for Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science and this has been approved by my Department for implementation.

These developments provide important opportunities to increase interest in and take-up of STEM subjects and progress the Action Plan for Education.