FF Cllr wants his Education Minister to go for Hybrid Leaving Cert

Fianna Fail Cllr. Micheàl Naughton is taking a motion to the Council today requesting that Donegal County Council engage with Minster Foley in support for a hybrid leaving cert for the class of 2022. 

Cllr. Micheàl Naughton says a hybrid Leaving Cert option has to be put in place to ensure fairness for the class of 2022 as the pandemic is still impacting on students’ educational experience. 

Cllr. Naughton said there was a real need to “listen to what students are saying” On a recent survey it showed that nearly 70% of students are calling for a hybrid model to be implemented this year again allowing them to have a choice between calculated grades, written exams or a mix of both.  
He said it was “frustrating that, just five months out from the beginning of the exam period, and as we enter our third calendar year of this pandemic, we are once again debating the way forward for the Leaving Certificate students of 2022”. 

“It is imperative that students are given certainty as soon as possible on the plans for this year’s exam.” 

He said current Leaving Cert students had suffered enormously over the course of the pandemic and “despite the huge efforts of all the principals and teachers in keeping the schools open, without doubt their education has been hampered since September by forced isolations, sickness and teacher absences due to Covid”. 

The leaving cert is a 2 year cycle so the time missed in 2020 & 2021 must also be taken into consideration. 

He said the disadvantage of missing school, teacher absences and no online tuition was not equally distributed and it is impossible to know which students are most affected. Covid is still present in our communities and further disruption cannot be ruled out. 

"Grade inflation and teachers' assessments due to no junior cert grades are the arguments for not having the hybrid model, these must be debated or are we saying that well trained professional teachers are incapable of conducting realistic assessments of their own pupils, is just untrue and offensive," he concluded.