Teachers vote against Junior Cert plans

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s plans to abolish the Junior Certificate are in disarray after teachers voted strongly to end all co-operation with the reforms.

He is now under pressure to deal with the stand-off caused by his insistence that teachers mark their own students on all tests and exams for the proposed Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA).

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment had proposed that final exams, to be worth 60% of total marks for each subject, continue to be corrected externally a year before Mr Quinn announced his plans in October 2012 .