The current Junior Certificate examination process is to be phased out over the next 8 years.
It will be replaced with continuous assessments and a test carried out by individual schools rather than a State exam.
The radical shake-up of the system was announced by the Education Minister Ruairi Quinn this afternoon.
It was drawn up by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
Under the proposals most students will generally take no fewer than 8 subjects and no more than 10 full subjects in the new junior cycle.
Students can also substitute 2 short courses for one full subject ”“ allowing options such as Chinese or Physical Education or Digital Media Literacy to be taken.
Schools will also be able to offer their own short courses in accordance with specifications from the NCCA.
The new system will come in on a phased basis with English being the first subject to be introduced to 1st year students in 2014.
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) will be involved in the assessment of English, Irish and Maths in the initial years.
The SEC and the NCCA will also provide materials to schools to assist in on-going assessment of students’ progress and achievement.
Is this a better system? Should the Leaving Cert follow suit?
Your say on href="https://www.facebook.com/newstalkfm">Newstalk Facebook:
href="https://www.facebook.com/IanOFlynn">Ian O’Flynn Well, they need to sort out the gaps in the teaching skill base. Some brilliant teachers out there and some brutal ones. Should my child fail the new junior cert because an under performing/arrogant teacher doesn’t like them? Needs to be done right!
href="https://www.facebook.com/aud.oddity">Oddity Aud Have to agree with Ian, that would be my concern!
href="https://www.facebook.com/ann.mulligan.75">Ann Mulligan Definitely great idea in theory, takes pressure of big exam off kids. Same should be done for Leaving; continuous assessment is fairer in my opinion
href="https://www.facebook.com/theresa.carter.549">Theresa Carter The hardest part of ensuring a fair way to do this will be evaluating and monitoring the teachers deemed capable of assessing students. I have met some pretty useless teachers
href="https://www.facebook.com/gerard.j.hough">Gerard James Hough Its Nonsensical to Announce a Programme such as this Without Teachers consent.
/> Without consent, this, very expensive, Plan is merely Aspirational…
href="https://www.facebook.com/naomi.odonovan.9">Naomi O’Donovan i am all for continuous assessment- and another thing! why cant kids repeat their leaving in September if they fail an exam- SUCH a waste of a year of their lives especially with subjects like Irish and English which change every year… they would have a whole summer to work on one paper…. that’s what universities do…
href="https://www.facebook.com/shovetmed">Shona Maguire NO!
href="https://www.facebook.com/shazkeav">Sharon Keaveney continuous assessment also means teachers wont be able to coast along all year then panic review an entire years course in six weeks… It will be way better for students… The most common phrase in BAD Irish Schools if you don’t understand it forget it and well do it again at the end of the year.. That will end with continuous assessment
href="https://www.facebook.com/shazkeav">Sharon Keaveney Where I went to school only the disruptive students got any attention and help if you were quiet you were left to your own devices. Teachers had no idea if I was even doing my homework with continuous assessment any outsider will be able to spot it and hold a teacher responsible
href="https://www.facebook.com/IanOFlynn">Ian O’Flynn Or they might just pass them to avoid being found out either… That’s why it needs to be regulated and monitored. Continuous monitoring of teachers to identify the slackers and retrain/redeploy them…?
href="https://www.facebook.com/catriona.sheehan">Catriona Sheehan I agree with Ian and Teresa. Be more in their line though to come up with a fairer categorisation of students, if you’re not academic, there’s no curriculum to cater for the more practical minded in society. Sometimes leading to adverse social behaviours because they were labelled going to school.
