Teachers fear change in pupil relationships

Members of both teacher unions picketing at Mayfield Community School were resolute yesterday in their opposition to marking their own students for Junior Certificate.

The small school of 320 students caters for many teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds in the northside suburb of Cork City. Staff say their relationships with them are crucial.

Olwyn Brady, an art teacher at the school for 15 years, said teachers assessing their own students — as currently proposed — would change that small community relationship within the school.

“Particularly at that age group, first year to third year, they’re very formative years. They come to really rely on you, we really are a community in that kind of pastoral care we have with them,” she said.

“At least you know you’re preparing them as much as you can and delivering an education. But also that, even though you’re assessing them informally all the time, you’re not the one assessing them for the formal component, that the State is examining that.”

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan says teachers would be guided on required marking standards, and 10% to 15% of coursework in which she wants teachers to mark their own students would be checked randomly by the State Examinations Commission to help ensure the standards are kept.

But Ms Brady, an ASTI steward, said all the correcting would have to be externally moderated to enable parents and students have full trust in the system.

“We support continuous assessment and different methods of assessment, like our assessment model for art which is a project.

“But as it is, they do have a very fair system, regardless of address or where they’re from. They are anonymous, it is unbiased, it is objective,” said Ms Brady.

Her colleague Denis Whooley, a TUI member and teacher of Irish and history, said students place their trust in teachers.

“We feel that the exam system is fair because it’s marked anonymously and to a specific standard that is rigorously checked. It gives them an opportunity of equity and fairness in their results,” he said.

He hoped that yesterday’s strike would bring gains, and that the minister would re-negotiate with unions.

“Resources haven’t been discussed or they haven’t been agreed by the department and the unions, and that would be a concern to us as well,” he said.

Aside from the dispute over who assesses students, or professional development for teachers, principal Tony Walsh said questions around resources are a concern to management at all schools.

Mayfield Community School runs a resource-heavy Leaving Certificate Applied programme, an alternative to the traditional school-leaving exam. It has lost over one-third of its middle-management posts in recent years.

School chaplain and ASTI member John Hurley said he previously marked Junior Certificate religious education exams, and the impartiality of the examiner — not knowing, for example if a student is male or female, from the city or country — is quite valuable.

“One of the big worries is that a student sees their teachers now as their friends, but knows that ultimately they would be the ones giving them their final mark and would wonder if that changes the relationship.

“You’d be worried if there was going to be pressure coming on teachers from parents too.”