Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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183. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reforms that will be made to the leaving certificate examinations to take into account the pressure on students from the pandemic and remote learning; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45606/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am conscious that students who are due to take their Leaving Certificate examinations in 2022 have experienced a degree of disruption to their learning.

My Department co-chairs an Advisory Group on Planning for State Examinations in conjunction with the State Examinations Commission. The group was originally established to consider contingency arrangements for the 2020 Leaving Certificate and was reconstituted for the purposes of planning for the 2021 Leaving Certificate. The group includes representatives of students, parents, teachers, school leadership and management bodies, the State Examinations Commission (SEC), the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Education, including the National Educational Psychological Service.

In meetings held in April and May of this year, this group discussed the Leaving Certificate 2022 examinations.

On 30 June, the Advisory Group on Planning for State Examinations received an update in relation to the 2022 Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle examinations.

Following this meeting, I announced that adjustments would be made to the 2022 examinations which are similar to those published in December 2020 in respect of Leaving Certificate 2021.

The adjustments are outlined in the document ’Assessment Arrangements for Junior and Leaving Certificate 2022’,which is available on www.gov.ie/leavingcertificate.

These adjustments will leave intact the familiar overall structure of the examinations, while incorporating additional choice for students in the examinations.

The adjustments provide greater choice for candidates across a wide range of subjects.

A summary advice note setting out the key curriculum and assessment arrangements for the Leaving Certificate Applied programme for Year 1 and Year 2 students in the 2021/22 school year has also been published and is also available on www.gov.ie/leavingcertificate.

The system of Calculated Grades which operated for Leaving Certificate 2020 was intended to be a once-off event in 2020 given the sudden and very challenging position at that time and the impossibility of running examinations in their traditional form safely.

A decision was made by Government in February 2021 to offer a system of Accredited Grades to this year’s Leaving Certificate students. The rationale for this was that, given the levels of disruption to learning experienced by current Leaving Certificate students during two significant and prolonged periods during their Senior Cycle education, it would have been unfair and unjust to require such students to sit traditional Leaving Certificate Examinations without offering an alternative or parallel process.

While schools were closed as a result of Covid-19 from January 2021, a programme of remote learning was provided to all students. Students who were in fifth year were also prioritised for a return to school following the return of sixth year students.

It is hoped that incoming sixth year students will be able to complete a full year of in-school tuition when they return to school at the start of the 2021/22 school year, and will experience no further disruption to their learning as a result of Covid-19

It was also announced, on 30 June that the State Examinations Commission (SEC) will run an alternative set of Leaving Certificate Examinations in 2022, shortly following the main set of examinations. The SEC will set out the eligibility conditions for these examinations, which will be limited to certain students who are unable to sit the main set of examinations due to close family bereavement, COVID-19 illness during those examinations, and certain other categories of serious illness, to be clearly and strictly delineated. The SEC will issue further details regarding these examinations, with all arrangements developed in consultation with public health specialists. There will also be further engagement with stakeholders in this matter.

While the above adjustments relate to the 2022 State examinations, the Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has undertaken an extensive review of senior cycle programmes and vocational pathways, including Transition Year, the Leaving Certificate Applied, Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the Leaving Certificate Established.

The review involved a very extensive range of research, consultations and communications with a wide range of stakeholders on all aspects of review and redevelopment over a number of phases over the period of the review. The NCCA also commissioned external expertise to support the process, including the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The NCCA’s Senior Cycle Review: Advisory Reportwas submitted to my Department on 27 May for consideration and will be published shortly.