Measures which could result in a new form of Junior Cert, with a fresh emphasis on continuous assessment by teachers of third-year students at second level, will meet stiff opposition from the ASTI.
The union's incoming vice-president, Mr P.J. Sheehy, said yesterday that the ASTI wanted any assessment of these students to be external if the system was reformed.
He said the proposal from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) would be used by the Department of Education as a "cheaper option" to assess students. "We do not support it for a sound education reason really, and that is because of what has been proved to be the brown envelope society which has been the substance of so many tribunals. Why undermine something that is beyond reproach?
"Anything that is open to corruption provides opportunity. We have had plenty of examples before the tribunals, and they have been public servants. Plus the fact that we live in a very small country and it's very easy to know who you are related to, or whatever, and it's unworkable in that kind of society."
Mr Sheehy continued: "There is also the danger, of course, that subsequently the same pattern could be pushed towards Leaving Cert, though they maintain now that that would not be the case.
"The role of a teacher would be totally changed and you would become the judge of your own students."
The NCCA has suggested the reforms on the grounds that the Junior Cert is no longer a terminal exam for more than 80 per cent of second-level students.
Meanwhile, delegates have backed a number of proposals calling for a review of Leaving Cert examinations of three hours and 20 minutes on the basis that they are excessively long, especially where students have to sit a second examination on the same day.
One delegate, Mr Pat Colgan from Drogheda, said it was parents' representatives who should be fighting for these changes rather than members of the ASTI.
"We `terrorists' should not be the ones to the forefront of this campaign," he said, in a reference to remarks by Ms Barbara Johnston, PRO of the Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parents' Association, who had likened the actions of teachers during their strike to "terrorists".