&

By Michelle Crean

A Killarney teenager is one of the leading voices calling on Education Minister Norma Foley not "to make the same mistakes as last year" - and to tell students the plans for State exams and the reopening of schools as soon as possible.

Kacper Bogalecki, a Fifth Year student in St Brendan's College, played his part in surveying thousands of students at the weekend as Regional Officer for Kerry with the Irish Second-Level Students' Union (ISSU).

Today (Friday), ISSU will present these findings to the Education Minister, the Department of Education & Skills, and all education stakeholders.

The survey had over 20,000 responses, and a private webinar with over 250 representatives of ISSU member schools in attendance. The feedback was that the majority said that they "feel very unsafe" returning to school in the current climate.

After extensive analysis of the survey results paired with data from the consultation, ISSU will be advocating for a choice for Leaving Certificate students between calculated grades or sitting in-person exams in June, with over 81 percent of respondents rating this option favourably.

ISSU will also be advocating for clarity with regard to the Junior Certificate exams, with 71 percent of Junior Cycle students who responded to the survey communicating their dissatisfaction with the support they have received from the Department of Education. Junior Cycle students are also not in favour of exams proceeding as currently planned, with calculated grades or an option of calculated grades and in-person exams gathering a majority of support.

"The survey and Town Hall went very well, we had a fruitful discussion," Kacper told the Killarney Advertiser this week.

"In terms of orals and practicals we saw that over 70 percent ranked want their orals and practicals cancelled. We also saw that 50 percent of respondents said that online orals and practicals would be their preferred second choice. For the Junior Cert we saw over 75 percent of students either want calculated grades or a mix of calculated grades and exams."

There also needs to be increased communication from the Department regarding safety protocols and the rationale behind their decisions, he added.

"In terms of how safe students feel returning to the classroom, 73 percent felt either very unsafe or unsafe in schools. What we are seeing is that students aren't confident as we haven't been given any scientific data - we want concrete data and more communication as that hasn't been present. We don't want the Department to make the same mistakes as last year, we're looking for a new option to be examined."

The full ISSU Report on the State Examinations 2021 and the Reopening of Schools can be found at issu.ie/news2/2021-survey-results.