Teachers should see changes as offering them a fresh start in careers

THE President of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, Gerard Craughwell, says he doesn’t think we should “experiment” with our children’s future but I don’t know how we can make progress if we don’t.

Does Craughwell want the Junior Certificate to stay as it is? He doesn’t, apparently. Both ASTI and the TUI say they want it reformed, but they still want it to be externally assessed and certified. They don’t want their teachers doing the marking.

Representatives of 27,000 teachers staged a lunchtime protest on Tuesday against Minister Quinn’s plan to replace the externally assessed Junior Certificate with the teacher-assessed Junior Cycle Student Award. Both unions are balloting their members on strike action.