An attempt by the Minister for Education and Science to introduce assessment by teachers into the Junior Certificate examination will fail, according to the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland.
A round of consultations on the proposal got under way this week when teachers met education officials to discuss the move which the Minister, Mr Martin, has made clear he wants.
The Minister has criticised the awarding of the Junior Certificate on the basis of an "all or nothing" written exam. He said this fails to measure many of the "competencies" of students and is unfair to those whose strengths lie outside the written and verbal area.
He favours a combination of assessment by teachers and external written examinations. But the ASTI has argued that "national external certification has a status and currency which retains the confidence of parents, teachers and the wider community" and that it would be a big step backwards to ask teachers to
provide marks for their own students for certification. Mr Paddy Mulcahy, a member of the standing committee of the ASTI, told The Irish Times that teachers had no objection to carrying out assessments for diagnostic purposes, and remedial teachers already did so.
"The only assessment we are not prepared to do is if we are asked to provide assessment to certify them. Members on the ground are very, very strong on this. It is not a question of money as far as we are concerned."
The Teachers' Union of Ireland has said it favours the Minister's proposals if four conditions are met. These are "time to carry out the assessment, training, appropriate remuneration and external monitoring".
Padraig O'Morain can be contacted at pomorain@irishtimes.ie and Weblink at: http:// www.irlgov.ie/educ/new.htm