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 .

This has been the biggest concern for unions, although the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) also have issues around training and resources. Their members both voted 88% in favour of industrial action in protest at Mr Quinn’s JCSA plan, with 45% of ASTI’s 17,000 members and 62% of TUI’s 9,000 second-level members voting.

The union directives issuing as a result of the ballots leave question marks over the JCSA’s introduction in September. From Monday week, April 7, teachers are being told not to:

* Work on developing or teaching short courses for the junior cycle (which does not apply to pilot courses running in some schools).

* Attend meetings associated with the junior cycle proposals.

* Attend or take part in JCSA-related planning meetings or activities.

* Take part in school-based assessment for JCSA.

“We could have discussions to resolve issues about professional development and resources, but only if there is definitely a State-certified exam at the end that is entirely marked externally. It’s the only system the public trusts and it has to be maintained,” said ASTI president Sally Maguire.

TUI general secretary John MacGabhann said the vote reflects deep concern that Mr Quinn’s proposals will impact on young people’s education experience. He said teachers want a fair externally-assessed system, which the minister has a chance to discuss before action starts next month.

In a statement, Mr Quinn intimated (as he did earlier this month) that the assessment proposals are already decided.

“A working group on the JCSA, set up in January and made up of all the education partners, continues to meet regularly and is the appropriate forum to address any concerns and discuss proposals relating to the reformed Junior Cycle,” he said.

Although assessment is one of the key topics for discussion, along with resources and teacher training, he said “that ship has left the harbour ” when asked a fortnight ago about State exams continuing for junior cycle.

More than 5,000 English teachers have been to over 200 workshops on the new curriculum in a first round of training that ended yesterday, but the votes also mean withdrawal by teachers from further professional development. English is the first subject in which a new course and revised assessment methods were to be introduced, culminating in the first JCSA certificates issuing in 2017, with other subjects scheduled to follow over the next five years.