Fianna Fáil last night claimed Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s continued refusal to listen to the concerns of teachers and many parents about the Junior Cert reform process is endangering its effective implementation.
The party’s spokesperson on education, Charlie McConalogue, said: “Junior Cert reform is certainly needed and I and my party strongly support the need for change and indeed initiated the process by tasking an National Council for Curriculum and Assessment working group, involving all educational partners, to develop reform proposals.
“However, Minister Quinn’s approach to the reform of the Junior Cert has been autocratic and dictatorial; he has refused to listen to the expertise of teachers and is pressing ahead with measures that educators have expressed real concerns about.
“He is expecting teachers to implement reforms from this September, but has failed to listen to their concerns or to put a proper training programme in place.”
He said one of their key concerns was the Minister’s plan to abolish the traditional Junior Cert exam and replace it with a system of teachers assessing their own students.
“My party believes that there must continue to be independent assessment of the exam to guarantee consistency of standards and assessment across all schools.
“However Minister Quinn has not only continued to ignore the advice of teachers, he’s also chosen to disregard recommendations from the NCCA working group, which sought a mix of school-based and State-based assessment.
“A recent survey by the ASTI revealed that two thirds of teachers want the reforms deferred by a year to give schools time to plan, but Minister Quinn told its conference this week that the changes would be coming in as planned this September.
“His approach of publishing timetables and proposals without consultation has led to teachers committing to industrial action and non cooperation with the reform process and has endangered very valuable and necessary educational reform.”
Sinn Féin education spokesperson Jonathan O’Brien said it was clear that there was now a massive gulf between the Minister for Education and the teachers expected to deliver the Minister’s reforms.
The Cork North Central TD said: “Given the pressure teachers are under to deliver for students while facing increasing cutbacks to the education sector, it is not surprising that they would have a fairly strong reaction to the Minister’s contributions.
“I am very concerned that the Minister has floated the idea that higher level maths should be made a requirement for teaching at primary level.
“The students who study for primary teaching degrees come from the top 15 per cent of Leaving Cert students and the work that they put in should not be undermined or diminished by an ill-thought out notion that that their 460 or 550 points don’t have the same value because they didn’t take honours maths.
“The Minister hasn’t stated what this is based on and I would call on the Government to ensure that education policy is based on evidence and best practice and I am unconvinced that teachers taking honours maths at Leaving Cert is an antidote to the deficiencies in teacher training or the lack of additional learning support for maths that are intensive and individualised.”
