Teachers' Conferences: Minister told dispute will continue if she implements Junior Cert reform

The dispute with Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan over Junior Cert reform will continue into 2016, if she implements her proposals without teacher agreement, the leader of the secondary teachers’ union warned.

Association of Secondary Teachers president Philip Irwin also said the ASTI, along with the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, is organising a national lunchtime protest of 27,000 second-level teachers at the end of this month.

He said, a year ago, ASTI had presented Ms O’Sullivan’s predecessor, Ruairi Quinn, with a petition of 10,000 teachers asking that he affirm the role of teachers as advocates on behalf of their students and supporting the retention of external assessment.

‘’We have no written acknowledgement of this from the then minister. If Minister Jan O’Sullivan persists, it will be time for the 10,000 signatories and their friends and allies in the TUI to visit the minister in person,’’ Mr Irwin said.

The minister has not been invited to address the ASTI gathering in the INEC, Killarney.

In his address to 500 delegates, Mr Irwin said Ms O’Sullivan had the opportunity to delay implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle pending agreement with teachers, but she did not take the opportunity.

He accepted, however, that in talks with the Department of Education last November, there was a “significant breakthrough” with the minister’s offer to restore state certification.

However, he stated, teachers wanted state certification to be given meaning by retaining external assessment organised nationally by the State Exams Commission.

It was regrettable, he said, that Ms O’Sullivan was going to press ahead without the teachers, despite a statement by Dr Pauric Travers, who drafted the reform document, that its chances of success were limited without the wholehearted engagement of teachers.

Mr Irwin said they wanted the Junior Cert modernised, but the centrality of the student/teacher relationship had to be supported by the minister if progress was to be made.

“The minister states that she is proceeding with implementation without us. If this persists, this dispute will go on into next year,” he said.

He also said they were always suspicious that moves to abolish the Junior Cert were driven by austerity and education cutbacks.

This had been backed up by information that savings of between €15m and €24m had been estimated as part of Government budgetary strategy in 2008 and 2010.

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