Teachers' Conference: ‘No compromise’ over reforms to Junior Certificate

There will be “no compromise” by protesting teachers in their opposition to proposed Junior Certificate reforms, the new president-elect of the 18,000-member ASTI has warned.

Máire G Ní Chiarba, assistant principal at Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire, Co Cork, said she was extremely concerned about the proposals and their implications for education and student motivation.

“It is a matter of great concern that the focus would be diverted from teaching and learning to assessing and grading,” she said.

In her incoming address to convention, Ms Ní Chiarba said her union’s members were very committed to education and wanted proper standards of both education and assessment.

“We believe in the stance we have taken, but the minister (for education) has decided to go ahead without us,” she went on.

“She would be well advised to look at the foreword to the draft document (on the framework for Junior Cycle) by Dr Pauric Travers in which he says change cannot be brought about without the support of teachers.

“There will be no compromise,” she warned. “The change is too important to be based on compromise.

“We want resolution, not compromise.”

Ms Ní Chiarba, a native of Limerick, who takes over as ASTI president for a one-year term on August 1, told reporters she was not ruling out further work stoppages by teachers on the issue.

Her other priorities include teachers’ contracts and working conditions, improvements for non- permanent teachers, support structures for teachers, unacceptable casualisation of the profession and constructive use of Croke Park hours.

She pledged to resist attempts to undermine the professional work of teachers and to expose change imposed for financial savings.

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