Sir, - Andy Pollak's article on the Review of the Junior Certificate as commissioned by the NCCA raises some very important issues. However, the article would lead a reader to believe that the central issue to be reformed is the method of assessment. The report cites a mismatch between the objectives of the Junior Cert and the methods of assessment. But before any conclusions are reached on this matter it is vital to get honest answers to the following questions:
1. Are the objectives of the Junior Cert too ambitious?
2. Are classes too large?
3. Was adequate in-service training for teachers provided?
4. Were adequate resources allotted to provide for the curriculum?
5. Is the Department of Education willing to continue to pay for the externally examined system that we have?
If honest answers were given to all of those questions then we would not find that the focus was on the short-term, cheaper alternative of continuous school-based assessment.
The article also points to the survey results from 239 second-level principals. This could hardly be considered statistically reliable as there are over 20,000 second-level teachers in our schools. That 86 percent of those same principals would favour continuous assessment is hardly surprising as they themselves would not be involved. I find it truly remarkable that so many people, other than the practitioners themselves, know what is best for our students and the educational system. The report's authors make the point that school-based assessment would actually enhance teachers' professional status. Thank you very much for our concern, but the ASTI, which represents 16,000 second-level teachers, is surely better placed to judge what may or may not enhance our profession.
Comments such as "Ireland is the only state in the developed world with a completely externally examined written exam at the end of the junior cycle .. ." are made to make us feel that what we have must be inferior. But on reflection, one realises they are spurious. At a time when the "brown envelope culture" seems to have permeated our society, it must be reassuring to both parents and pupils to know that our system is both objective and anonymous. Long let it remain so. - Yours, etc., P. J. Sheehy
ASTI regional representative, Coolgreany, Gorey, Co Wexford.