Concern over Junior Cycle plans

Teachers agree with much of what Victoria White states in her thoughtful and measured contribution on educational innovation (Irish Examiner, March 13).

We have always championed intelligently developed and socially progressive initiatives such as the Leaving Certificate Applied, Leaving Certificate Vocational, Transition Year and the Junior Cert Schools programmes.

We also acknowledge that the Minister’s proposals for Junior Cycle contain many welcome aspects, such as a greater focus on oral competence and the establishment of priority learning units for students with special educational needs.

However, while respecting that curriculum should evolve, we must not mimic the experience of England, where pendulum swings in policy have caused systemic damage and have demoralised both teachers and students.

Ms White questions why teachers felt compelled to protest over the Junior Cycle.

Our answer is simple: We remain gravely concerned by a lack of information on the practicalities and resourcing that will be required for the new programme. With less than six months to its implementation, there remain too many questions, ambiguities and grey areas.

For example, there is a real risk that a multiplicity of overlapping assessments will actually increase pressure on students. Also, schools that cannot offer a broad curriculum or high visibility short courses will suffer.

Specifically, this means small schools and schools in rural and disadvantaged areas. These are but two of many concerns across a range of headings too numerous to list here.

We disagree with Ms White’s suggestion that teachers’ worries about the lack of financial resourcing for the project ‘could be overcome with a bit of creativity’. Good teachers always underpin their teaching with creativity.

On a daily basis, they see the damage that six years of austerity cuts have wreaked on staffing numbers and the supports and programmes that benefited the most vulnerable students. In many cases, their innovation patches over deficits caused by these cutbacks. Such creativity is essential, but it should complement rather than substitute for an appropriately funded, fully equitable education system. This is the very least that students deserve.

Gerard Craughwell

President Teachers’ Union of Ireland

Rathgar

Dublin 6