Schools ‘should stop focus on final exams’

A SMOOTHER transition for pupils moving from primary to second-level education and less reliance on final exams are key to effective reform of the Junior Certificate, an expert has suggested.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has asked for changes to the junior system to be in place for tens of thousands of students entering first year in just over a year. But work has been ongoing toward possible reforms by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), based on previous research.

Dr Emer Smyth of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has headed up the most detailed studies, which tracked more than 900 students who entered 12 second-level schools a decade ago through to the Junior Certificate. She believes that, while the question of subject overload is often blamed for student disengaging from school, this is more of a concern to parents and teachers than students themselves.