Does the Junior Cycle matter anymore? It’s a question many are asking, especially in light of the historic delay in marking students’ exams which took place six months ago.
“That, in itself, is a sign of how seriously it’s being taken by the system these days,” said one school principal on Wednesday. “It’s just not a priority.”
Once upon a time the Inter Cert was a major milestone for students who left second level education to take up jobs, training or apprenticeships.
These days, Ireland has one of the highest school completion rates in the world with more than 90 per cent going on to sit the Leaving Cert.
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In fact, if a previous minister for education’s plan had been fully implemented, there would no exams at all.
Ten years ago Ruairí Quinn announced plans to scrap the June exams and replace them with classroom-based assessments.
This dramatic change in education policy followed on from research which found that an emphasis on a terminal exam in third year had a serious, negative backwash effect on students’ learning and was out of line with international practice.
It found that the Junior Cert, designed in 1989 to be radical and different, quickly became a mirror image of the Leaving Cert, with the same, familiar failings.
It was too high stakes, too dominated by rote learning and it forced teachers to teach to the test.
Research by the Economic and Social Research Institute also found that that high numbers of male students – particularly those from a disadvantaged background – tended to disengage from school during the Junior Cert programme.
Teachers’ unions, who opposed assessing their own students for a State-certified exam, mounted fierce resistance to the planned reforms.
In the end, the June exams survived, but in watered-down form.
While students this year sat externally-assessed exams, they are shorter and involve classroom-based assessments, which are marked by teachers.
This is the first year we have seen the full impact of the changes: all exams have taken place under the revised specification of the Junior Cycle, with most subjects at common level (apart from English, maths and Irish) rather than higher or ordinary level.
Gone, too, are the old As, Bs and Cs. They are replaced by descriptors which emphasise achievement over failure, such as distinction, higher merit, merit, achieved, partially achieved, etc.
The paper-based Junior Certificate has also been replaced by a much broader Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement, which includes exam results, classroom-based assessments and achievement in short courses and other areas of learning.
So, what kind of change is this leading to in teaching and learning?
According to the first major review into the impact of Junior Cycle reforms, students are more confident communicating in class and better able to take responsibility for their own learning than in previous years.
However, there are concerns among principals and teachers over a “misalignment” between Junior and Senior cycle, with many calling for the type of broader learning in the early years of second-level to be followed through to the Leaving Cert.
In addition, there is evidence that classroom-based assessments are a source of stress and anxiety among students and staff, especially in schools that have a strong emphasis on exam performance and high grades.
On a more positive side, the review found teacher collaboration, professional conversations and the language teachers acquired to talk about learning appeared to have developed since the introduction of the reforms.
As for the exams themselves, there was plenty of whooping and high-fiving among many students who received their results on Wednesday.
It remains a milestone for many students in terms of their progress and a useful dry-run for taking on the Leaving Cert.
But there is no getting away from the fact that the exams themselves do not carry the same weight they did in days gone by.
