Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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410. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, following on from suspending the leaving certificate reform, the timeline on when she will engage with stakeholders, including student unions and student bodies, to ensure a pathway to the reform of the leaving certificate. [11622/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that in March 2022, I announced an ambitious programme of work for a reimagined Senior Cycle of education where the student is at the centre of their Senior Cycle experience. In my announcement, I set out a clear vision for Senior Cycle.

I want to be clear that Senior Cycle redevelopment has not been suspended. Significant progress has been made to date in implementing the vision I set out last March, and this work continues.

The Deputy may be aware that, last week, I announced that the interim plan to have the first of two papers in Leaving Certificate English and Irish examinations taken in Fifth Year has been deferred. The move of Paper 1 was intended as an interim measure to spread the assessment load and improve student wellbeing. It was also intended that as many students as possible could feel some effect of reform programme before the main programme of reform is introduced.

My officials and I have engaged with student representatives, teachers’ unions, parents’ representatives and subject teacher organisations over the last number of months to understand their concerns about this change.

Having reflected on the views provided by stakeholders, I have decided to defer the introduction of this planned change so that those entering fifth year this coming September will sit both of the papers in each of the subjects in Irish and English in sixth year.

As I have said, Senior Cycle redevelopment itself has not been suspended, and my commitment to redevelopment remains unchanged. Indeed, last week I also announced the appointment of the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Programme Delivery Board which will oversee the reform work and report regularly to me on progress, and the Board will hold its inaugural meeting tomorrow, Wednesday 8 March 2023.

Introducing this underpins the collaboration necessary to support implementation and, where appropriate, further developments under the programme.

Work on Senior Cycle redevelopment is ongoing, and much has been achieved since my announcement, including:

- Ongoing significant change at Senior Cycle needs to be thought through carefully and it is essential to ensure that the NCCA, State Examinations Commission (SEC), the Department of Education and schools can work through the changes with all stakeholders over a sustained period of time.

In recognition of this, on the same day I also announced the establishment of the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Partners’ Forum, a representative stakeholder engagement group wexaminations have been held at Easter;

- Access to the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) has been broadened through the removal of subject specific requirements. These are the first steps which will ultimately lead to a more integrated Leaving Certificate available to all students.

- Subject background papers for the two new subjects ((i) Drama, Film and Theatre Studies and (ii) Climate Action and Sustainable Development) and also for Business prepared with public consultations on same completed;

- Subject Development Groups for the two new subjects and for Business convened, with Groups holding regular meetings since then;

- Statement Development Group for the revised Transition Year Programme Statement convened, with several (monthly) meetings held to date; and

- Detailed consideration of the operation of the Network School approach for the introduction of new and revised subjects from September 2024.

In addition, our focus now is on advancing the planning in relation to the approach to Network Schools, with further engagement necessary with the NCCA and other key partners before launching an Expression of Interest process to schools seeking their participation.