Fine Gael members call on Quinn to reverse Junior Cert reforms

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is facing further pressure on his plans to replace the Junior Certificate with a school-marked system after Fine Gael members voted to seek changes.

Although Government TDs and senators opposed it, a motion was passed at the Fine Gael ard fheis calling on Mr Quinn to reverse his decision to phase out the externally- assessed exams. He is facing a ballot this month by 27,000 teacher union members for withdrawal of co-operation with his Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA) plans.

The main opposition relates to the proposed move from students being marked by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to teachers assessing their own students.

Ahead of an informal picket called by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and Teachers’ Union of Ireland at school gates next Tuesday, the motion from the Fine Gael Bartlemy and Rathcormac branch in east Cork puts further pressure on Mr Quinn to revise the plan. His proposals go beyond National Council for Curriculum and Assessment recommendations that final exams continue to be marked externally.

“I am writing to the Taoiseach and other ministers outlining my concerns and those of Fine Gael members who voted that it should now be addressed at Government level,” said Cork county councillor and secondary school teacher Pa O’Driscoll.

“We have tried to raise this through my union, the ASTI, but the minister isn’t listening so I’ve had to go down the political route through my party,” said Mr O’Driscoll.

A spokesperson for Mr Quinn said both parties in government are entitled to develop their own policy proposals, but the Government has endorsed his reforms of junior cycle and the creation of the JCSA in place of the Junior Certificate. She said these reforms also received cross- party support in the Dáil.

Mr O’Driscoll, an ASTI central executive member, questioned Mr Quinn’s claim the JCSA would end the high-stakes examination facing 15-year-olds, when they now face seven assessments in 18 months, when new standardised tests in second year are also counted.

“You will now have teachers in small rural schools marking their neighbour’s children or maybe even their own, or feeling pressure to give higher marks,” he said.

Fellow CEC member and candidate for ASTI vice-president next month, Michael Barry, said external assessment of State exams remains one of the few things left to keep a good record compared with regulation of many other things in Ireland.

“The system proposed is creating fear of perceptions that one school’s certificate might have a higher value than that of another school,” Mr Barry said.