I and my officials are very open to discussing issues of disagreement relating to the JCSA with the teacher unions and have been all along. I have asked my officials to continue to have discussions with the partners on Junior Cycle.
At present I have detailed suggestions, particularly from the management/patron bodies, which will inform the discussions going forward, but I continue to await similar written submissions from the teacher unions. The door remains open for such discussions.
In the meantime, the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) support service has seen a highly positive response to its continuing professional development (CPD) programme for the coming academic year:
- 5,385 English teachers have registered for the forthcoming school year 2014/15
- 4,814 English teachers attended CPD during 2013/14 (or 90% of English teachers registered with JCT)
- 1,690 Science teachers across 371 schools have registered with JCT
- 1,240 school leaders attended the JCT school leadership seminars during 2013/14
- 509 schools have, to date, requested JCT to facilitate Junior Cycle whole school CPD during 2014/2015.
It is clear that a significant number of our schools – their teachers and their leaders - are interested in implementing the new framework, as can be seen from the interest and participation levels last year along with ongoing indications of involvement with CPD in the coming academic year.I have already extended the time period for the phased introduction of the Framework for Junior Cycle and have slowed down the introduction of the initial subjects at the request of the partners. However, this phased implementation will commence this September and new specifications for the remaining subjects will be introduced between now and September 2019.
