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.