Teachers angry over changes to Junior Cert paper

TEACHERS have expressed anger at the circulation of changes to the format of Junior Certificate Irish papers just eight months before students sit the exams and with no notice from the body which sets the tests.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) sent copies of revised sample papers to the country’s 730 second-level schools last week, which included a change in one of the types of question from the existing format. In place of the usual question asking students to write a transcript of a conversation or interview, examiners are inserting a grammatical question which the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland said has not featured on the exam for many years.

While the union acknowledges that the topic is on the syllabus and may be examined, it is the timeframe in which they have heard about the changes which is causing concern among members.

“The phones are hopping for the past week with teachers who have just found out about this. They should have been notified by last January at the latest if they were to have a chance to adapt their exam preparation schedule for these changes,” said ASTI assistant general secretary Moira Leyden.

“It is largely seen to be a result of operational and staffing issues, which may be another consequence of cutbacks. But at a time when the minister has asked for a complete review of the Junior Certificate, this is a prime example of the exam system dominating classroom practice, and also at a time when cutbacks have meant extra students in Irish classes at many schools,” she said.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe requested a major overhaul of the Junior Certificate in June, after outlining concerns about the volume and scale of assessments, the high number of subjects studied and the high level of disengagement by students before completing the junior cycle.

The changes to the Irish exam paper follow on from plans to increase the proportion of marks for oral Irish given at Junior and Leaving Certificate. Although it is an optional exam only taken up by around 20 schools each year because teacher unions ban members from assessing their own students, the oral exam in Irish for Junior Certificate will be worth 40% of total marks to those who do it from next June compared with 20% previously.

From 2012, the points for Leaving Certificate oral Irish will rise from 25% to 40% and marks for the listening test will drop.

The SEC said it is liaising with the Department of Education on the issues raised by the ASTI.

A spokesperson for Mr O’Keeffe said it is standard practice to publish a sample paper at the start of the exam year when a change is being introduced.