Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 November 2016
25. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a progress report on junior certificate syllabus, subject and assessment reforms and his key priorities in this regard for 2017 and 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35239/16]
View answerWhere stands junior certificate reform? Does the resolution, up to a point, of the dispute with the ASTI mean that the issues relating to junior certificate reform have been resolved? Will the Minister give students an assurance that they will not end up penalised or losing marks because their schools or some of the teachers in the schools may not be participating fully in junior certificate reform?
The Deputy's question relates to a number of matters. I do not whether she will be interested in this, but I have information on the roll-out of the reform cycle. As she knows, it is designed to provide students with learning opportunities that strike a better balance between learning knowledge and developing a wide range of skills and thinking abilities. I think the Deputy shares my belief that this is a better way to go. The implementation is being rolled out. English has already been rolled out and is coming up for examination this year for the first time. Business studies and science are now in place, and the teachers involved are benefiting from continuous professional development and are availing of professional time to support implementation. The Deputy will have seen that we made significant provision in the budget to release teachers to do such work.
Phase 3, which will begin in September 2017, will involve Irish, visual arts and modern languages, covering French, German, Spanish and Italian. The new curriculum of well-being will also be introduced at that time.
Phase 4 will begin in September 2018 and include mathematics, home economics, history, music and geography. Phase 5, beginning in 2019, includes the remaining technology subjects, religious education, Jewish studies and classics.
The first classroom-based assessment in English has taken place in TUI schools and the second is due to be completed in early December. The written assessment task is to be completed very shortly after that. It is based on the classroom-based assessment, which, as the Deputy said, is an element that will be examined by the State Examination Commission and will count for 10% of the marks.
We continue to have discussions with the ASTI within the Teachers Conciliation Council. All the issues that have been in dispute with the ASTI, including the junior certificate, are contemplated by those talks. As the Deputy knows, to date, members of the ASTI have been directed by their union not to participate in the classroom-based assessments. That continues to be the situation, but we are seeking to resolve it in the course of the present discussions.
I do not know whether the Minister is aware that many students and their parents feel deeply unsure about what is happening with junior certificate reform. While the junior certificate is obviously not as big an exam as the leaving certificate, it is a major issue in the life and perspective of a student if he or she is working away and yet may be penalised because one particular union is not involved in the assessments. Junior certificate reform has, on and off, been a topic for discussion going back perhaps 20 years. It is designed to import more creativity, more critical thinking and more collaboration into our secondary-school cycle, at junior and, ultimately, leaving certificate level. In that sense, it is very necessary because we are told constantly-----
I thank the Deputy.
-----that the number of jobs which will change over the next ten to 20 years and which will affect these students right throughout their working life is very significant.
I thank the Deputy.
However, I am very unclear, on foot of the Minister's reply, as to what actual progress has been achieved. Does he acknowledge that students still will not know-----
The Deputy's time is up.
-----whether some will be at a ten-point disadvantage if their schools are overseen by ASTI members?
I absolutely agree with the Deputy that this is an important reform. It has been part of public policy for a considerable period. We are in the unfortunate position that one union is not supporting its roll-out. I have requested that the ASTI provide a derogation for English teachers so that this can proceed. That continues to be a request with which I hope there will be agreement because there is still time to do this. However, the examination itself has been set by the State Examinations Commission. The basis on which marks are assigned is known and it is not for me to interfere with that. The latter is an established way in which this examination will be assessed.
It is my desire and hope, and the purpose of the ongoing talks at the Teachers Conciliation Council, to seek to resolve this issue, along with a number of other issues that are of concern to members of the ASTI. I hope it can be achieved.
I ask all Deputies please to adhere to time limits for questions.
Will the Minister tell us the number of students and schools affected by the non-collaboration of the ASTI and its members with the junior certificate cycle reforms? We are coming close to Christmas and the exams will happen not too long in the life of the students and parents after that. With due respect, it is not good enough for the Minister to say this is only for the State Examinations Commission, SEC, and it has nothing to do with the Minister if one significant group of students is getting on with junior certificate reform, as are the schools and teachers. The Minister has not ruled out the possibility of students missing out on a 10% assessment mark. In the scheme of things, it might not seem an awful lot but for a very ambitious student hoping to get a relatively high grade or a weak student, it amounts to a significant portion of marks to miss out on.
As the Deputy knows, the approach of the new junior certificate is to have a range of items on which people can be assessed. A very important element is the certificate of achievement and, unfortunately, it will not be available if schools have not participated in allowing students to recognise and measure their performance. It is a big innovation to allow people do things outside the norm, value the project work they do in class and so on.
The 10% of marks are assigned by the SEC based on a written piece of work in classroom-based assessment. If that has not happened, those marks cannot be assigned. Of course, anybody looking at a junior certificate will see how a student did in his or her exams and fared in the different subjects. Unfortunately, those elements are under some pressure in the 375 schools that are purely ASTI. We would like to see the issue resolved but we must do it through the Teachers Conciliation Council, and that is what we are seeking to do.
