Talks focus on marking Junior Cert replacement

The details of how standards can be maintained in the system proposed to replace the Junior Certificate are being examined in talks to try resolving a dispute with teachers, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn told the Dáil.

The question of who should mark students’ exam papers is the main concern of teacher unions, whose members began industrial action in second-level schools on Monday in protest at the minister’s proposed Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA), for which students will be taught a new English curriculum from September.

But while teachers seek the maintenance of external assessment currently done by the State Examinations Commission (SEC), Mr Quinn said it is for him to decide and he did so on best evidence and the plan is going ahead: “How we do it and how it is implemented is, of course, open to consultation. I am open to discussion and we are still discussing it. However, the unions cannot hold a veto over the new destination for education in this country.”