O’Keeffe outlines Leaving Certificate policy vision

ANY reform of Leaving Certificate courses and assessment methods are likely to depend on a reduction in the level of testing for Junior Certificate students under a policy vision outlined by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe.

The minister told theNational Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the state body that advises him in this area, he is committed to further reforms of maths, science and Irish for senior cycle students and other Leaving Certificate changes as soon as resources allow. But there are many inherent constraints in a centralised system of exams which are set and marked externally.

“The scope for further reform in senior cycle will rest heavily on some decrease being made in the scale and volume of assessment at junior cycle. This is not a matter of funding, but that further complexity and volume in the constraints of a limited timeframe increase the risk of system failure.”

Insisting that such changes were more to do with curriculum overload than the funding implications of operating the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate exams, which cost the State Examinations Commission more than €71 million last year, Mr O’Keeffe referred to a Economic and Social Research Institute report.

“It has highlighted significant levels of stress, students pressured by taking 10 to 14 subjects in junior cycle, and a significant minority experiencing disengagement and dissatisfaction with their school experience,” he said.

The minister said a recent debate on education has become increasingly critical of a second-level system that’s considered by many to be driven by rote learning and exam pressures rather than the promotion of real understanding and skills. He referred to the lack of success in ensuring most students leave school fluent in Irish or capable of spontaneous discussions which had prompted the Government to allocate 40% of Leaving Certificate marks in the subject for the oral Irish exam.

“It is perhaps another example where an emphasis on rote learning has had a negative impact on confidence and competence.”

Higher Education Authority chief executive Tom Boland spoke last week of concerns that second level schools are spoon-feeding students, who “learn to the test” and are not learning to think for themselves.

Mr O’Keeffe said such issues are not unrelated to the issue of curriculum overload, the need for greater emphasis on assessment for learning, practical project and portfolio assessment and the time necessary to promote experiential self-directed learning.

The minister acknowledged that a number of new Leaving Certificate curricula devised by the NCCA, including two technology subjects and an overhaul of the art curriculum, have been delayed by funding.