Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the supports that have been put in place to assist students who have decided to sit their leaving certificate examination in November 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29867/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Leaving Certificate, including the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and Applied, written examinations will commence on 16 November 2020 and will take place over a 4-week period to 11 December 2020. Detailed information regarding the arrangements for these examinations can be found on the website of the State Examinations Commission at .

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) will operate the examinations in line with public health guidelines at the time. In line with current policy, candidates will not be able to attend at school to sit these examinations if they are suffering from COVID-19, have symptoms of the virus or are required to self-isolate or restrict their movements due to the virus.

Following the closure of schools in March 2020, the Department published a range of guidance to assist schools and teachers in ensuring continuity of teaching and learning for students, as well as supporting their wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This guidance aimed to ensure regular engagement of students in lessons, tasks and learning experiences across the range of curriculum subjects, provision of regular assignments and regular, practical, supportive and customised feedback on work submitted. Schools engaged with their students in various ways, in accordance with the technology and broadband resources available in school and at home.

The aim of the remote learning approaches adopted by schools, the guidance that was issued to all schools, and the regular engagement with students, was to ensure that students stayed connected with and progressed their learning. These actions will, therefore, have helped to minimise the impact of the school closures and to enable students to complete the curriculum before tuition ceased on 11 May.

Students choosing to sit the postponed examinations will have additional time to prepare for examination and, if they choose, may opt to sit less than the full suite of examinations.

Candidates for postponed examinations are no longer students in schools and the school which they attended will be fully engaged with 6th year students who will be preparing for examinations in 2021, as well as full cohorts of students in every other year.

Candidates who have been approved by the State Examinations Commission for the use of reasonable accommodation(s) for the June examinations will have access to these accommodation(s) in November.

These measures include alternative scheduling of an examination(s) (e.g. to facilitate medical treatment) provided such was possible within the confines of the day/evening of the examination. This could involve either early or late examinations sittings requiring candidates to be supervised so that they did not have access to other candidates who had already sat or who have yet to sit the examinations in question, though noting that this facility will be quite limited in November as the examinations take place during the normal school year. Candidates can also have access to a special examination centre and the provision of rest breaks during the examinations.

It is not possible to approve new applications for reasonable accommodation in any other circumstances, other than the normal emergency application process which applies each year.

It is highly unlikely that it will be possible to facilitate sitting examinations in hospital settings in November due to HSE restrictions on access to hospitals as a consequence of COVID-19.