Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
21. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education if a decision will be made and a plan put in place over the coming weeks regarding the way that leaving certificate 2022 will be held in order that teachers, students and parents will know the position when schools return in September; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34787/21]
View answerThis relates to the leaving certificate for next year. Has the Minister made any decisions or have plans been put in place for leaving certificate 2022? Will such decisions be made in a timely fashion so teachers, students and parents will know the position when schools return in September?
As I have said, the Department and I, as Minister for Education, are acutely aware of the disruption caused to all students as a result of school closures arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. From 11 January 2021, all students engaged in a programme of remote learning with their schools and I express appreciation to schools for managing that.
Students who have just completed fifth year and who are due to take leaving certificate examinations in 2022 have experienced a degree of disruption to their learning. In these circumstances, it was considered that some level of adjustment to the normal leaving certificate assessment arrangements should be made for them that would be proportionate to their experience and be educationally appropriate. Given where these students were at in their studies at the time of each school lockdown period, the impact of the loss of tuition time is less than that experienced by those students who sat the leaving certificate this year. To be fair to the class of 2022, there has been a loss of in-person teaching and learning.
I am pleased to say that yesterday, the advisory group on planning for State examinations received an update on the 2022 leaving certificate and junior cycle examinations. I announced that the level of adjustment to the assessment arrangements for the 2022 leaving certificate examination cohort would be broadly the same as that applied by the assessment arrangements for leaving certificate examinations for 2021, as set in December 2020. These arrangements were announced before the second period of school closures. Additional changes will be made to that document to reflect syllabus content specific the 2022 examinations. The revised document will be published later this month.
I also announced yesterday that the 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 etc. 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 guided by prevailing public health advice, which is a key priority. There will be further engagement with stakeholders in this matter.
In the course of the conversations over the past few days about NPHET, advice, a question mark - although not a major one - was placed beside the potential return to school in September. Nobody expects that to be an eventuality but it has still been brought into the conversation. Would it not be a cleaner or better for the Minister to decide now to roll out leaving certificate 2022 exactly as the leaving certificate for 2021 has been rolled out, with a choice for students? Fifth year students have lost quite a number of months of in-school tuition in this calendar year. Would it not make more sense for the Minister to make the decision now that students going into sixth year next year would have the exact same experience as those who did the leaving certificate last month? We are not yet out of the pandemic and we cannot make any predictions about what will happen with variants.
It is important to acknowledge there has been a considerable amount of forward planning by the Department in preparing for the 2022 leaving certificate. I acknowledge the contribution of the advisory group, as I outlined, which is representative of students, parents, teachers, managerial bodies and the wider spectrum of education partners. It is positive that we can now indicate to students what will be before them as they return to school at the end of August and early September. Advance notice is important not just to students but to teachers as well.
We are constantly engaging with public health officials about mitigation measures and the operation of our schools. That engagement continues and any mitigation measures required, as I indicated earlier, are being and will be put in place. As I have said, we have made provision for a second running of leaving certificate examinations for the 2022 cohort. That is very important and students should be aware that the provision is there for them.
I understand that the Minister needs to go through with the wide-ranging consultation with students, parents, teachers and other representatives. A number of months of in-school tuition have been lost to that fifth year cohort now going into sixth year. The July plans have already been delayed and NPHET is suggesting the potential, if everything went badly wrong, for a question mark over the reopening of schools in September. I appreciate that the Minister cannot make a definite decision on the floor of the House.
Can we not keep within our decision-making parameters the potential for the exact same scenario to happen in 2022 as happened in 2021? Were the Minister to make an early decision in that regard, it would be greatly appreciated as we would not have to go through six months of campaigning to get to the very same point we reached six months ago.
To be fair to all who have engaged in this process, we were in a position yesterday, at the end of June, to make an announcement regarding forward planning for the class of 2022, which includes accommodation in terms of the exam. It is proportionate. It is the accommodation that was made available originally in August, with a further modification in December in terms of the assessment of the exam. We have gone a step further in June by announcing to students in advance of June 2022 that we are in a position and it is our intention to run a second diet or operation of leaving certificate 2022 to accommodate and make way for students who might, unfortunately, suffer a bereavement, an illness, an impact brought on by Covid-19 or whatever other issue might arise in that context. There has been considerable planning. Obviously, we keep everything under review and we engage with public health. It is a significant achievement that we are in a position to make this announcement one year in advance for the benefit of students.
