Teachers say they will not assess their own students for junior cert

Almost 350,000 students from secondary schools right across the country are not at their desks today as 27,000 teachers have stopped work by taking industrial action to once again highlight their opposition to Department plans to change the Junior Certificate.

The proposals, which include teachers assessing their own students for 40pc of the marks, could see teachers marking relatives, neighbour's children or in some cases their own children. This is the aspect over which teachers have the greatest concern.

The ASTI and TUI Unions are insisting that the industrial action is to protect education standards, equity and fairness.

To hear the views of teachers on the ground in Cavan, The Anglo-Celt talked to two teachers on the picket line this morning at the gates of St Patrick’s College.

Jane Craig Elliott, who teaches English, Art and Religion, said: “We really don’t want to be on strike, but we do feel very strongly about the integrity of the junior certificate. We really don’t think that assessing our own students is going to advance the students. We think the Minister has to look at that and we are really against assessing our own students. That is really the bottom line.”

She continued: “We feel that the standards that we have been upholding for years on the Junior Certificate will be lost and that is the big issue. The Junior Cert will be worth nothing if we throw our hat at this – we really feel that this is worth fighting for,” added Jane Craig Elliott.

Kieran Smith who is a Science and Maths teacher in St Patrick’s College told The Anglo-Celt: “They are diminishing and diluting standards by trying to change the system of assessment. If they want to improve education at secondary level, they would need to be looking at primary level as well.
“Students will progress to Leaving Certificate and they will be very ill prepared for it. They won’t have the experience of doing the Junior Certificate, which they had before.”

Mr Smith said that while teachers could go along with many of the proposed curriculum changes, “we will carry out our own tests as we always do, but the Certificate itself should be one hundred per cent assessed at national level by external examiners.”

The Anglo-Celt understands that the Education Minister has agreed to attend fresh talks with unions on the issues next week. The invitation has been extended by the Independent chairman Dr Pauric Travers and unions are expected to respond later today.