Mayo general election candidate calls Senior Cycle redevelopment process ‘a complete and utter farce’

Today, Tuesday, November 19, second-level teachers in Mayo will hold a lunchtime protest outside their schools in which they will seek a delay in the implementation of Senior Cycle redevelopment.

The protest follows a decision to ‘accelerate’ Senior Cycle redevelopment plans. Teachers are gravely concerned that aspects of the plans pose a threat to education standards, fairness and quality. They also have concerns about current system capacity to accommodate such major change.

The protest, which is taking place nationwide, is being organised by second-level teacher unions the ASTI and the TUI.

Upwards of 30,000 second-level teachers all over the country will participate in the protest. Service to students will not be affected.

Castlebar-based teacher, and People Before Profit candidate in the General Election, Joe Daly, said today that whole process has been ‘a complete and utter farce’.

^{People Before Profit general election candidate Joe Daly pictured with his nomination papers with Mayo Returning Officer Anne Marie Courell} 

“As an ASTI member myself for the past 17 years, an elected school steward, an elected delegate to the Central Executive Council and a teacher of senior and junior cycle science subjects I can tell the public that the general consensus amongst teachers is that this whole process has been a complete and utter farce and if it proceeds at the accelerated pace planned it will be a disaster for students not to mention a nightmare for teachers and parents.

No rationale

“We have a complete lack of depth of treatment in syllabi, no teacher guidelines produced, no sample examination papers or marking schemes prepared and no rationale or research-based evidence laid out to underpin the changes taking place.

“There are also concerns relating to the equitable implementation of changes whereby access to facilities and resources will inhibit schools serving disadvantaged areas and where private schools will be able to gain further advantage over public schools”

“It seems that Minister Foley was blindly following the failed logic of the new junior cycle when she unilaterally announced senior cycle reform in the spring of 2023 without agreement of teachers' unions. The next Minister for Education must postpone the implementation of the senior cycle redevelopment until the serious concerns of teachers are addressed in full.

“As a candidate in the General Election I am calling on the public to get behind teachers as they struggle to defend the educational system from further dumbing down and underinvestment by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael,” concluded Mr Daly.