My Department is acutely aware of the disruption caused to students as a result of school closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. From 11 January 2021, all students, including students currently in second year and who are due to sit the Junior Cycle state examinations in 2022, engaged in a programme of remote learning with their schools. All students have now returned to school.
The public health restrictions which resulted in the closure of schools in March 2020 highlighted the absolute necessity for schools to be agile in providing for continuity of schooling in the future. As a contingency measure against the possibility of partial or full school closures, my Department provided a suite of guidance materials, agreed with the education partners, to enable schools to mediate the curriculum safely for all pupils/students in a COVID-19 context.
The nature of distance learning, which was necessitated during the unprecedented closure of schools last year and early this year, required educators to take on a range of approaches to support their pupils’ continuity of learning during that period. Assisted by Department-funded resources and supports, schools and teachers demonstrated great innovation in adapting to the unprecedented situation including the use of digital technologies and online learning platforms for teaching and learning.
My Department put a series of measures in place to assist schools in mitigating the impact of the school closures. During the period of school closure, schools were required to implement a plan of action to enable continuity of learning for all pupils. This involved teachers, including special education teachers, providing remote teaching and learning to all pupils in their class or on their caseload.
These measures also included enhanced ICT grants, updated guidance for teaching and learning in a remote context and an expanded supplementary programme of learning to take place in students’ homes or in schools over the summer of 2020. Guidance was also provided to teachers to ensure that when schools reopened one of the priorities is to provide rich and progressive teaching and learning experiences for all pupils and, in so doing, to ensure that those learners most impacted by the school closure period are enabled to reconnect with and progress in their learning. Teachers were encouraged to focus on enabling pupils to learn, on developing their learning readiness, and on promoting pupil confidence in and motivation for learning in this context.
With schools now fully reopen, my Department will continue to monitor and assess the impact of the school closures on pupils/students. My Department is planning for an enhanced Summer Programme of learning for students at most risk of educational disadvantage or those with complex special educational needs. The aim of the 2021 Summer Programme is to mitigate, to the extent possible, the effects of prolonged school closures in 2021. My Department’s Inspectorate will engage with a sample of the schools providing the programme to evaluate the extent to which schools have been successful in meeting the aims of the programme.
In addition to the above provisions, my Department announced an In-Person Supplementary Programme to support the education or care needs of primary and post primary pupils with complex needs. This programme of in-person support was intended to supplement the teaching and learning provided by the student’s school and alleviate the impact of this period of school closure through the provision of 5 hours per week in-person teaching or care support to be delivered in homes. Further information is available here: www.gov.ie/en/service/865df-in-person-supplementary-programme/
In April of 2021, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) published revised arrangements for the completion of Classroom Based Assessments for students in 2nd year in 2020/2021 (cohort of students 2019 – 2022). These arrangements are designed to take account of the disrupted learning experienced by students during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school year. As the loss of learning through school closures will have affected students’ engagement with their course of study in different ways, the adjustments put in place will play to students’ strengths by leaving intact the familiar overall structure of the examinations, while incorporating additional choice in and reducing the number of Classroom-Based Assessments. The revised arrangements also remove the requirement for an Assessment Task to be completed. The adjustments were arrived at through consultation between my Department and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and key stakeholders. These revised arrangements are available here: www.ncca.ie/en/resources/revised-arrangements-for-the-completion-of-classroom-based-assessments-cbas-for-students-in-second-year-in-20202021-1/
Junior cycle papers are structured to reflect the learning outcomes based approach to the design of the subject specifications. This means that the elements are used to integrate the strands of the specifications resulting in assessments that require students to apply knowledge and skills acquired rather than examinations that depend on knowledge recall only. Candidates are required to answer all questions and no choice is provided. Questions are not of equal length or marks. Making any changes to the format of the papers would undermine the approach taken by teachers in developing units of learning that mediate the curriculum specifications.
These changes to the national assessment arrangements were made with due regard for the principles of equity, fairness and integrity, as these principles apply to assessment and examinations and refer to student-to-student, subject-to-subject, and year-to-year comparisons over time. The changes provide reassurance to students, their parents/guardians, teachers and schools.
