‘Teachers will in time value assessments more than exams’

School-based assessments of junior cycle students will be valued by teachers and parents more than exams over time, the country’s top schools inspector predicts.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) have not accepted the final proposals that emerged last month from talks with the Department of Education, chaired by Pauric Travers, the former president of St Patrick’s College.

The Travers plan includes schools issuing reports on teachers’ assessments of their own students’ work in second and third year. The State Examinations Commission would continue to mark the final written exams in all subjects under the proposals, which have been accepted by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan.

They are not accepted by unions, which say that further talks on resourcing the changes are needed. They are continuing to ban some 27,000 members from taking part in training or other related activities.

Department of Education chief inspector Harold Hislop said teachers have long argued for investment in their professional development and know its value.

“It would be a great tragedy if they did not avail of the rich learning experiences and dedicated time for learning that junior cycle for teachers (JCT) is now offering,” Mr Hislop told the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools annual conference last night.

The JCT support service is making some training available online for teachers of English, the first subject in which a new course is being taught, with junior cycle coursework to be assessed in schools from early 2016.

“Even if currently unconvinced by some elements of the junior cycle arrangements, teachers can through JCT acquire a deeper knowledge of their subject and the pedagogical skills associated with it, they can help JCT to be more responsive to their needs, and they can only enhance their professional standing. I truly hope that this opportunity will not be lost,” said Mr Hislop.

He said a risk of the new approach is whether school assessments would be as valued as State-certified exam results, but he is confident that they will.

“Indeed, I believe that when teachers and parents experience school-based assessment and feedback, they will come to regard them as much superior to exams, but this will take time,” he said.

Ms O’Sullivan will address teachers on the issue at TUI’s congress on April 8, but she has not been invited to Asti’s annual convention the same week.

Meanwhile, Mr Travers’ successor as president of St Patrick’s College warns that standards could fall as teachers leave the profession and suffer reduced morale over continuing pressures on resources and reforms.

Daire Keogh will tell the conference today that perhaps the most alarming revelation of the junior cycle impasse was the mediator’s observation that teachers were “alienated and distrustful even of initiatives which may be to their professional benefit”.

“Whatever the outcome of the junior cycle reform process, it’s vital that such sentiments be reversed and teacher confidence be restored,” he says.

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