Days of Junior Cert are numbered

The Junior Cert in its current format has no future, key education figures have acknowledged.

When it was introduced in 1989, the Junior Certificate was hailed as an antidote to the Inter Cert. This new system of assessment would address the shortcomings of the old exam and provide a more balanced, student-friendly curriculum for the early years of post-primary education.

However over the past decade the Junior Cert has not lived up to its promise. A 1999 report "It's the first national exam and it's important that it continues," John Whyte of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), said. "But the content of the courses needs to be made more valuable, with more emphasis on understanding than on repeating a received idea."

Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) president John MacGabhann said teachers were prepared to discuss other forms of assessment with the NCCA, provided any changes are properly resourced and negotiated.

"Time, money and adequate in-service training must be provided. The implementation of the Junior Cert was under-resourced," he said.

This exam received some particularly hard knocks over the past academic year. In January senior Department sources said the Junior Cert might be jettisoned so that all resources could be diverted to protecting the Leaving Cert. This suggestion was widely condemned and quickly abandoned.

The notion that the Junior Cert could be scrapped was enough to confirm that its days are numbered. However even its most vocal critics accept that some form of assessment at junior cycle is needed. A model of assessment is available in the Junior Cert Schools Programme; some 120 school are currently operating the programme, which allow students to combine a number of Junior Cert subjects with non-exam pursuits. The assistant chief executive of the NCCA, Anne Looney, said the merits of this programme will be considered in the development of a revised Junior Cert. Proposals for the development of the junior cycle curriculum and the exam will be finalised this autumn, Looney said.