Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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94. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of concerns (details supplied) in relation to imminent changes to the senior cycle; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34849/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Senior Cycle Redevelopment is about recognising and meeting the promise of education. It is about enabling students to navigate the dynamic and ever-changing world around them by helping them to develop their talents, their skills, and their understanding. It has the potential to reduce pressure on students by moving away from a single final examination. The equivalent of additional assessment components are already in place in 28 of the 40 Established Leaving Certificate subjects. The majority of those existing components already have weightings at, or above, 40%. Such components also make it possible to recognise a much broader range of skills in our students that cannot be assessed in written examinations.

Senior Cycle Redevelopment is already well underway in our schools. Students began to experience its benefits from September 2022 when changes were made to the Leaving Certificate Applied and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programmes. A revised Transition Year Programme Statement is now in place and we see record levels of Transition Year participation. Also, in the school year which has just concluded students have been able to access modules at Levels 1 and 2 in Senior Cycle for the first time.

The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to provide equity of opportunity to young people at risk of educational disadvantage to achieve their potential through education. My department invests over €180 million annually in supporting schools in the DEIS programme

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a new DEIS Plus Scheme to support schools with the highest level of educational disadvantage to improve educational outcomes, particularly in literacy and numeracy. I am committed to delivering a new DEIS Plan this year to outline my department’s overall approach to tackle educational disadvantage, and the DEIS Plus scheme will be an important part of that plan.

In December last year, my department issued €12 million in funding to schools under the Science Implementation Grant. This included a targeted uplift for DEIS schools of an additional 10% on top of their base payment. This means DEIS schools received an additional 10% on top of the base payment for their enrolment band which was in line with previous applications of a DEIS uplift in Departmental funding models, including the grant for ICT infrastructure. The grant is intended to support schools as they rollout the revised Leaving Certificate Science subjects.

Oide will continue to provide a comprehensive range of professional learning experiences to support teachers and school leaders, building on the work done to date with over 29,000 school leaders and teachers receiving professional learning this school year. Over 5,000 teachers attended webinar sessions on sample examination papers in recent weeks. Teachers are preparing and planning to implement the new and revised subjects in the coming months.

I believe that there is now a robust and fair package of supports in place to ensure schools and teachers are fully equipped to deliver on this ambitious programme.

This package of supports commits to increased resourcing by establishing additional posts of responsibility and expanding subject grants. It commits to the formation of several working groups including one to examine workload in schools and a task force on A.I.

Pausing Senior Cycle Redevelopment would not be in the interest of meeting that promise and that is why, as I confirmed in April, in May when publishing the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Support Measures and again earlier this month following Union ballots, the programme for redevelopment will proceed. It is important to provide students entering fifth year in September and their parents with this clarity and certainty. It is also important to note that whilst the membership of the trade union referred to by the Deputy voting against the published package of Support Measures; their rejection related to those elements that would form part of a collective agreement and not the introduction of new and revised elements of the curriculum. Finally, I would remind the Deputy that the membership of the other trade union in our post-primary schools voting in favour of the published package.