Teachers would consider examining own students

A teachers’ representative says they will consider examining their own students for Junior Certificate but only if it is done in their normal teaching time, or if they will be paid for it.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) general secretary John MacGabhann was responding to the idea put forward by a principals’ leader that the exam be corrected by students’ own teachers, given moves to make the Junior Cert less of a high stakes event.

As this year’s 59,000 Junior Cert students got their results, Mr MacGabhann said the TUI was prepared to consider different examination methods, including school-based assessment. However, he said, it also attached conditions to any such moves that would protect public confidence in the State exams, as well as its members’ professional interests.

“For any new assessment methods, time must be provided, which is a workload issue. We’re not in the business of increasing teachers’ workloads. There must be external moderation or quality assurance, which already happens at third level. There must be training to protect students by ensuring what is done is done well, and there should be payment where appropriate.”

Mr MacGabhann said the extra 36 hours a year, or one hour a week, being worked by teachers under the Croke Park Agreement was already being used for curricular planning, staff meetings outside school time, and other uses.

The State Examinations Commission paid €19m last year to 6,638 examiners to mark Junior and Leaving Certificate written, oral, and practical exams.

TUI this year eased its ban on teachers examining the optional Junior Cert oral Irish test, for which the State Examinations Commission does not pay external examiners. Growing numbers of schools have offered the optional Junior Cert Irish since the marks given for it were doubled to 40% in 2010, with one-in-seven who got results in the subject yesterday having taken an oral test.

TUI members may conduct oral Irish tests only if it is voluntary, and if the work is either done in their timetabled classes or they are paid for it, or both. However, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland bans members entirely from any unpaid State exam work, as it says doing so would endanger the credibility of the exam system.

National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) director Clive Byrne said in yesterday’s Irish Examiner that examining and marking their own students would allow teachers give them direct feedback and make the three-year junior cycle more about learning than preparing for a final exam.

Mr MacGabhann said teachers recognise that the Junior Cert is no longer as high-stakes as it once was, given that 90% of young people are now progressing to the Leaving Certificate.