Report of Working Group on Junior Cycle reform published today
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., is to invite the two second level teacher unions to talks relating to the new Junior Cycle Student Awards, which are being phased in from September to incoming first year students.
Minister Quinn said he was disappointed that greater progress had not been made at the Working Group set up in January to address issues relating to the new JCSA. He acknowledged that many of the education partners, including parents and school management bodies, had put forward constructive proposals to support the introduction of the revised programme in schools.
The Working Group, made up of education stakeholders including management bodies, parents and the ASTI and TUI, published a short report today.
Minister Quinn said, “I plan to invite the ASTI and TUI to talks on Junior Cycle reform shortly, which I will chair. However, in deference to the students who begin their State exams next week and their families and teachers, this will happen after the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert exams are completed.”
“Notwithstanding the fact that both unions have voted in favour of industrial action on the JCSA, they say they are not against educational reform or Junior Cycle reform. This is welcome.”
“The report states that further engagement with all the partners will be necessary and inviting the two teacher unions to talks in the first instance is how I believe we can best progress this. Ultimately, we all have the best interests of students at heart. We must reform the first three years of second level education in order to prepare our young people for life in the 21st century,” Minister Quinn concluded.
English is the first subject to be rolled out in the new JCSA in September for students who are entering first year. They will sit the revised English exam in June 2017, which will consist of one two hour exam set by the State Exams Commission (SEC) and marked by the SEC. This exam will be worth 60%, with the other 40% to be awarded to school based assessment to take place during second and third year.
The Working Group was established in January of this year as the platform to continue to address issues relating to new JCSA with the education partners. A number of changes to the roll-out of the new JCSA were outlined. These included:
Phasing In
A slowing down of the phasing in of the new Junior Cycle subjects.
Standardised testing to begin later than planned (Spring 2017)
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Additional CPD for all teachers (1.5 additional days for English and one additional day for all other subjects)
A full day of facilitated whole school CPD for each year of implementation
Workload/Assessment
A commitment to consider duties and posts in schools to support assessment and moderation
Agreement to discuss external supports for teacher assessment and moderation.
Three sub-groups were also established to assist the work of the Working Group:
- Workload and Implementation issues for schools and teachers
- Quality assurance and support for teacher assessment
- Continuing Professional Development
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ENDS
The report from the National Working Group on Junior Cycle Reform is available at:
http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2014-Press-Releases/National-Working-Group-on-Junior-Cycle-Reform.pdf