Teachers picket over ‘backward’ proposal

Teachers picket over ‘backward’ proposal


Ciara Galvin

SCHOOL-based assessment will seriously undermine national education standards. That is the view of Balla Secondary School teacher and ASTI Standing Committee Representative John Holian.
Speaking on the eve of today’s picketing by 27,000 secondary school teachers, Mr Holian told The Mayo News that the current proposal by the Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan is ‘not fair to anyone’.
Minister O’Sullivan is now proposing a 60 percent terminal examination which is to be externally assessed and a 40 percent teacher-assessed component. Though this proposal is a row back on previous Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s proposal for the entire abolition of the Junior Cert, teachers are still in strong opposition to the teacher-assessed component.Mr Holian said teachers had no issue with a reform of the current exam but that the proposal for the teacher-assessed component would ‘jeopardise current standards’. He said after ‘exhausting all other avenues’ teachers were now taking to the picket line.
“Currently in the Junior Cert an ‘A’ grade in one part of the country is equivalent to an ‘A’ grade in another part of the country…this is because there is a rigorous model of external assessment which ensures consistency of standards right across the country.”
The science teacher outlined that there are current marking schemes, marking conferences and chief examiners who oversee the maintenance of standards and that with the absence of these, teachers will only be able to judge a student against ‘his/her classroom peers’.
Mr Holian said he did not like the idea of assessing his own students as he feels that teachers are there to ‘promote our students not to judge them’.
“If students feel teachers will be the final judge it would change the dynamic of the classroom,” said Holian, adding that parents of students didn’t agree with the teacher assessment proposal.

Pawns
In a statement issued last night the President of the Irish Second Level Students’ Union, Craig Mc Hugh, said teachers were using students as ‘pawns’ in the industrial dispute.
“Taking students away from their timetabled classes is creating a barrier for students as they prepare for their Junior and Leaving Certificate exams this upcoming summer,” said McHugh, adding that the strike was not ‘conducive to progressive reform’.
Speaking about the evolution of the education system, Mr Holian said the system had served the people of Ireland well through the years and that the evolution of the system had been ‘enabled and fostered by teachers’.
“The teacher unions have gone to great lengths to seek out the views of members on the issue of Junior Cycle reform. Many of the proposed changes have been welcomed. However school-based assessment is seen as a backward step,” concluded Mr Holian.