Teacher was told that guidelines for the assessment of Junior Cert not yet ready

People have varying opinions about the new Junior Certificate course, but, as a teacher, this is my experience: in May, 2014, I attended training on the new Junior Certificate English course.

While I was apprehensive, I accepted that changes needed to be made. Topics were introduced that were unfamiliar only in name; content was to be more or less the same.

The big change was that I was to assess my students’ work and set the exams. The guidelines for assessment were to be set by the department.

We asked the course directors for the guidelines/criteria. Their response was that they did not know and that the department did not know.

They were asked when they would know and the response was “maybe in a year and a half. Sure, first-year doesn’t matter”.

This was an outrage and only showed that implementation of this new Junior Certificate has not been thought through. The first-year students who will begin in September 2015 are irrelevant, according to the department.

For the parents’ council to suggest that teachers are “cowards”, as we fight for their children’s education, is laughable.

I continue to wait for the department to decide when the student will be important.

David Enright

Ballyanrahan

Patrickswell

Co Limerick