According to the Irish Agricultural Science Teachers’ Association (IASTA), major problems lie in the examination of the new ag science course particularly in the area of the Individual Investigative Study (IIS).

PRO of the IASTA Johnny Gleeson explained: “The major stumbling block is the IIS, which accounts for 25% of the grade. We feel this cannot be completed.”

“A good chunk of the project must be done in fifth year, to submit in April of sixth year. Students need a full year on a farm to collect their data but COVID-19 has resulted in many students not being able to collect this data.

Teachers claim that they are also in the dark about how the exam paper will be made up and are urgently seeking sample papers. “Because this is a new course, we have no idea how to prioritise topics. We knew the structure of the old course and we could adapt our teaching to that but because this is a new course, we can’t. We lost on average 15% of the teaching year due to COVID-19. We are therefore calling for a wide variety of questions in the Leaving Certificate to allow for the strong possibility that some topics may not be covered.”

At time of press, IASTA had sought a meeting with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the State Examinations Commission and the Department of Education.