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Education Minister Joe McHugh was involved in a Dáil dispute with Labor spokesman Aodhán Ó Riordáin over whether school profiles will be part of the evaluation after the cancellation of the Certificate of Exit.
McHugh said it was a “disgrace” for Mr. Ó Riordáin to make the claim when the Labor spokesman said that students in disadvantaged schools would lose because they would be evaluated in the history of their school.
The minister said the Labor TD was doing “poor service to disadvantaged schools” by making such claims.
Ó Riordain said, however, that such a profile was fundamentally unfair.
“If I were an average student at a fee-paying school, I would be much happier today than if I were an exceptional student at a disadvantaged school because you will be evaluated on the history of your school,” he said.
He called on the Minister to “just get rid of the school profile”. McHugh insisted that the grades would be awarded by schools, not the Department of Education.
The dispute erupted during a debate on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Leaving Certificate exam.
The Minister said that the “Plan C” system that the Department of Education is implementing after the cancellation of the Exit Certificate exams will allow students to move to the next stage of their lives “in a timely manner.”
A special unit is being established in the department to give all students the option of a calculated grade for the 2020 Certificate of Exit, McHugh said. He added, “It is crucial that you also guarantee them the right to sit for exams at a later stage when it is safe to take exams in the normal way.”
Fianna Fáil education spokesman Thomas Byrne said, however, that the government should make the “clearest statement possible” on the reopening of schools after receiving expert advice on the matter.
Guidelines
Byrne said the World Health Organization (WHO) has released guidelines on reopening schools “that may not be as restrictive as we might have been concerned.”
He said: “I think you must have an absolutely clear message that you are doing everything possible to open our schools in September at the right time.”
Byrne said “we need that continuity of education.”
“We don’t have an e-learning setup,” he said.
“It just won’t work in the long term. It’s a giant social experiment right now.”
He said: “Our children need to go back to class in September” and there should be “the clearest possible statement from the government that they are doing this.”
The Minister said that “the advice of the NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) is that schools will reopen in September, so we are working on that basis.”
He added that the advisory group on reopening schools would meet on Friday. He said the group would analyze the practices of other countries that had reopened schools and colleges and that a remote meeting of EU ministers would be held on May 18.
“Access to schools will be allowed starting Monday, May 18. While this is not a return to work within the meaning of the protocol, it will allow staff access to school where needed to support continuity of teaching and learning. “
Fairer system
The Minister told the House that rating evaluation “is the fairest, most equitable, and most fair way to meet challenges and a better way” to proceed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Canceling the Leaving Certificate exams and moving to the planned evaluation was “one of the most difficult cabinet recommendations a minister has ever had to make,” he said.
He said: “It was my absolute preference to take the written and practical exams.”
When the exams proved impossible “we developed a Plan B that moved the exams to July and August”.
But he said he received convincing evidence that the exams could not be conducted reliably, validly, or fairly.
“I was very aware of the disadvantage that some schools faced and the impact that lack of time at school has had,” McHugh said.
He said the requirement to protect public health meant that exams in July and August would not have been the experience for which the students had prepared.
The exam would not be comparable to the Leaving Certificate in any other year, “which could imply the need for students to wear masks and gloves, superintendents who require PPE, and the possibility that exams may have to be redesigned to the extent that they would have been unrecognizable. “
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