No signs of progress in Junior Cert reform talks

Talks between teacher unions and the Department of Education over junior cycle reforms continued late last night but without signs of any progress being made.

The row over who marks students in a revised Junior Certificate system has already closed over 700 second-level schools twice in the past two months.

But talks that resumed last Thursday had seen department officials and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and Teachers’ Union of Ireland adjourn to hold further discussions yesterday. Although those talks continued through the day at a Dublin city hotel, resuming at 8pm after a break, there were no suggestions of a breakthrough being close.

It had been hoped talks chairman Pauric Travers might be able to find enough common ground to draw up the draft of an agreement that union leaders could put to a ballot of their combined 27,000 second-level members. However, as the day’s proceedings passed the 12-hour mark, after a 9am start, it appeared the parties were not near such a position.

Without a resolution in prospect, the threat remains of a third one-day strike that would see over 340,000 students forced to stay home again, as they did on December 2 and January 22.

The unions are opposed to any aspect of the Junior Certificate being assessed by students’ own teachers, which Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan wants them to do for two pieces of coursework in second year and third year.

Although she has agreed to allow the final written exam in each subject be marked externally by the State Examinations Commission, reversing plans of her predecessor Ruairi Quinn, teachers say any school-based assessment would alter their relationship with students and raise questions about equal standards between schools.