Letters to the Editor: We should heed AI warning in British school curriculum report

'Despite the fact that the Irish Science Teachers’ Association, the ASTI and the Irish Universities Association representatives on the NCCA Biology, Chemistry, and Physics have publicly dissociated from the flawed model [in the senior cycle curriculum plan], all of these concerns have been ignored by the Department of Education.' 

Hildegarde Naughton, the new minister for education, would be well advised to study carefully the recently published Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report for England (November 2025). This report, commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Education, was written by Professor Becky Francis and her panel of educational experts and is grounded in extensive evidence. 

Its conclusions could not be more relevant for Ireland as we reshape our own senior cycle.

The panel is unequivocal on the fundamental threat posed by generative AI to coursework and school-based assessment. As the report states: “Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
has further heightened concerns around the authenticity of some forms of non-exam assessment … it is right, therefore, that exams remain the principal form of assessment” (p 136).

The authors go further again, recommending restraint: “We recognise the risks posed by generative AI to non-exam assessment, and therefore there should not be any expansion of written coursework” (p 136). 

Unfortunately, senior cycle reform in Ireland clearly shows that Ireland is intent on moving in the opposite direction.

The current plans for senior cycle redevelopment propose significant increases in coursework, including a minimum of 40% of marks in the science subjects allocated to research projects assessed via indirect assessment methods. 

Despite the fact that the Irish Science Teachers’ Association, the ASTI and the Irish Universities Association representatives on the NCCA Biology, Chemistry, and Physics have publicly dissociated from the flawed model, all of these concerns have been ignored by the Department of Education.

In addition, the warning that senior cycle reform will widen the social divide in Ireland is echoed in the UK panel report: Externally set and marked exams remain the fairest and most reliable method of assessment.

If England concludes that expanding coursework in the age of AI is unsafe, why is Ireland proceeding down this path in such a reckless fashion? Are we really prepared to dilute the security, equity and international reputation of our Leaving Certificate at precisely the moment when other jurisdictions are tightening theirs? And if these predictable risks materialise — loss of authenticity, widened inequalities, and reduced trust in our State examinations — who will take responsibility?

Adrieanne Healy, Castleknock Ave, Dublin 15

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Pension delay for former postal staff

I have just read the article — ‘An Post predicting record parcel volume as weekly deliveries hit 3m’, Irish Examiner, November 20. 

Our problem with An Post is our pension entitlements under the An Post pension act of 1983 and especially section 46 which the government guaranteed us our pension as civil servants; An Post will not pay our full entitlements.

They and the unions brought in what they call the pension accord which means the max rise we can get is the cost of living or 2% even though the pension has a surplus of more than €500m according to a statement by the chairman of An Post.

Our last two rises took more than seven months to go through because An Post management has to inform the government minister and it then gets sent on to another department.

You would never see a TD or minister wait that long.

Unfortunately we had some pensioners pass away before they received the rise. 

We as pensioners have given more than 40 years of service to the State

Brendan Sweeney, Blessington, Co Wicklow

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Genocide continues amid 'ceasefire'

Lest we forget, the genocide against the Palestinian people continues. On November 19, at least 13 men, 12 women, and eight children were killed by Israeli bombings in Gaza, and at least 260 have been killed since the so-called ceasefire began on October 10. Israeli settlements on the West Bank and attacks by Israeli settlers are continuing to expand. 

On November 20, Human Rights Watch stated: “The Israeli government’s forced displacement of the populations of three West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

On November 13 a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza landed at an airport near Johannesburg. They were taken from Gaza through an Israeli controlled crossing then transferred to Israel’s Ramon Airport where they boarded a Romanian aircraft that took them to Johannesburg, South Africa. 

This adds another layer of ethnic cleansing to the mass murder campaign that has probably caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people in Gaza. A Guardian article states that the Trump-orchestrated peace plan for Gaza “puts Donald Trump in supreme control of Gaza, perhaps with Tony Blair as his immediate subordinate in a ‘board of peace’”. There is no mention of accountability for the genocide committed by Israel or the participation and complicity in that genocide by US, and many EU and Nato member states.

The Trump peace plan makes no mention of how the 2.4 m Gaza population are going to survive in the Gaza Strip that has been deliberately made unlivable because of the destruction of almost all facilities necessary for human living, serious pollution by depleted uranium and other dangerous chemicals, and unexploded munitions.

The UN Security Council passed its most outrageous resolution on November 18, which if implemented could have the effect of pardoning and even rewarding Israel for the genocide it has been perpetrating against the Palestinian people.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick

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Redevelopment of Cork convent site

I wish to point to the democratic deficit deeply felt over the decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála to uphold planning permission for the largest student residence development in Cork, on the site of the notorious former Magdalene laundry and mother and baby home, at the Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, a site with extremely problematic access for development, not to mention its controversial history. 

In this context falls the linked continuing Tuam babies scandal of undiscovered bodies, which seems to have had little or no impact on the thinking of the planning authorities in this case.

Approximately 1,000 bed spaces for students — and tourists in vacation times — have been approved in a historic architectural conservation area of Cork City with no reasoned acknowledgement, reference or refutation of the multiple appeals, observations and objections of local residents, nor of the detailed and strongly-argued submission by the Magdalene survivors group to An Coimisiún Pleanála. Substantial objections and appeals lodged by local residents and groups, based on first-hand knowledge of the poor local infrastructure and lived local experience, are summarily dismissed by the commission.

Not a single public meeting has been held by developers, the local authority, or local TDs, or councillors to seek the views of residents and consider their numerous suggestions for alternative appropriate uses of the site.

The new development will transform the soul of this historic, hilly part of Cork, not only by its design but by the implantation of 1,000 people into an area which can already barely cope with its few hundred inhabitants. Local topography means that footpaths are barely wide enough to let two people pass, let alone buggies or wheelchairs; Sunday’s Well Rd is effectively a frequently congested one-lane carriageway, and the surrounding narrow steep roads which access the site, including Buxton Hill with its dangerous blind corner, are deemed to be safe to accommodate 1,000 additional residents.

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The local infrastructure will be submerged by an additional 1,000 residents spilling onto the adjoining streets on bikes, on foot and on scooters, and cars in tourist season, not to mention the inevitable fast food deliveries delivery vans, e-scooters etc, which will add to the severe daily congestion and dangers in this area and, furthermore, where there is no adequate public transport.

The blatant disregard for the voices of local residents deepens the democratic deficit and encourages cynicism at a time when trust in our institutions was never more important.

Martin Krasa, Sunday’s Well Rd, Cork