Rose Conway-Walsh urges hybrid Leaving Cert choice for students
Rose Conway-Walsh addressed the impact of Covid-19 on Leaving Cert students and urged the minister to offer a hybrid Leaving Cert option. She warned that an early, decisive choice would give staff, students and the Department of Education time to prepare and reduce stress on this cohort.
Impact on students and families
She highlighted the human cost of the pandemic — over 6,000 people died with Covid in this state, 9,159 on the island and more than one million contracted the virus — and said students and their families are part of that wider societal suffering. High levels of absence among students and teachers, disruption from school closures between January and March 2021 and freezing classroom conditions have harmed preparation for what many regard as the most important exam of their lives.
Digital divide and rural connectivity
Conway-Walsh recounted letters from constituents about unreliable internet and lack of devices, noting the particular difficulties for rural students in Mayo. She said not a single home in her area has yet been connected under the broadband plan, and that online learning failures forced students to try to catch up each time connections dropped.
Grade inflation and the hybrid model
She rejected the notion that a hybrid model is to blame for grade inflation, arguing that grade inflation can be managed and that allowing it to balloon for two years has damaged the system. Conway-Walsh defended the option of a hybrid Leaving Cert last year — a position she said she and her colleague Donna Coleri and others in Sinn Féin called for and supported — while calling for better management to avoid repeats.
Calls for early decision, targeted funding and reform
Conway-Walsh urged the minister to act early to give stakeholders time to prepare and to spare this year's cohort from bearing the consequences of past mistakes. She called for targeted funding to underpin increased college places, highlighted small intake numbers in medicine as insufficient to address shortages of doctors, nurses, psychologists and physiotherapists, and said the Leaving Cert reform pathway should restore the system without penalising current students.
Personal testimony and equity concerns
Speaking as a mother of a Leaving Cert student, she recounted emails from pupils who fell ill after exposure from frontline worker parents and said many young people have suffered anxiety, loss of confidence and unequal access to supports. She appealed for a hybrid choice to reduce inequality and protect students' mental health during an exceptionally difficult two years.
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Minister, it is not too late to do the right thing. Over the past two years over 6,000 people have died with Covid in this state and 9,159 on the island and over 1 million have contracted the virus. Millions more have been close contacts. Minister, leave insert students and their families are not immune, they are not different, they are part of society and what society had to endure. I do not think anyone would argue with the fact that the high levels of absence among students and teachers through no fault of their own has had a significant impact on the ability of leave insert students to prepare thoroughly in the way they need to for probably the most important exam in their life. Leave insert students face significant disruption to their learning when school buildings were closed between January and March 2021, particularly those without access to electronic devices or a stable internet connection. I deal with issues every day in Mayo and there is not a single home yet that has been connected to the broadband plan. Minister, one mother wrote to me saying my daughter has been a consistent hard worker throughout her school life but the distraction of the last two years have knocked her confidence and she is struggling to get by from day to day. We live in a rural area of Mayo with an extremely unreliable internet connection so online learning presented its own challenges. Whenever the connection failed there was a process of trying to catch up with other students. The constant loss of class time due to teacher and pupil absences, the freezing conditions in the classroom and the constant uncertainty have all rigged habit. She goes on to say words cannot express how much it would mean to have an option of a hybrid model leaving cert giving students the choice they are rightly entitled to given the trauma that they have suffered. A student wrote to me saying I recently contracted the coronavirus and I was extremely ill for a number of days while my school was extremely supportive. I did miss out. I am saying this as I am sure I am not the only leaving cert student who was in this situation. I did not contract the virus through carelessness but through a parent who was a frontline worker. Many of the students I have heard from are children, sons and daughters of frontline workers who have been going through extreme pressure for the last two years as well. I would ask you to take that into consideration. There are many more emails and calls that I know that every TD in this House has received as well. The accounts are far more convincing than the government's justification for not offering the hybrid leaving cert. Now, Minister, I fundamentally reject the idea that a hybrid model is to blame for grade inflation. Grade inflation can be a problem or it can be managed properly in any examination system and I do believe it can be managed properly. The fact that the grade inflation has been allowed to balloon two years in a row has created real damage to the system and caused stress and hardship for many students. This does not mean giving students the option of a hybrid model last year was wrong. I believe it was exactly the right thing to do and it was something I and my colleague Donna Coleri and others in Sinn Féin called for and supported. Grade inflation can and must be managed better to ensure we do not have a repeat of the last two years. Government constantly pat themselves on the back for increasing the number of college places but without proper funding to underpin it, it just means that the third level sector is bursting at the seams. Funding and resources need to be targeted, particularly the high demand courses. The small numbers in medicine go nowhere near addressing the shortage of doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists and all of the healthcare disciplines. This year's cohort of Leaving Cert students should not be punished due to the mistakes in the management of the hybrid system last year. We should be learning from that experience to ensure it is executed better this time around. Being decisive and making an early decision will help. It will give staff and the Department of Education and all stakeholders who have been through an extremely challenging time more time to prepare. I speak as a mother as well of a Leaving Cert student minister and I really would ask you that I am fortunate because we can get extra grinds, we can get extra help if we need it. With the inequalities that are being created within the system by not giving a choice and the stress and the mental health problems. I am talking about really resilient youngsters who have gone through a terrible time in the last two years. I am asking you to take that into consideration. We have time over the next couple of years to bring back the system to the way it should be through the reform of the Leaving Cert as well. Don't make this cohort of Leaving Cert students carry the can for everything. Goera maaga.
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