Céad míle fáilte for new Irish language commissioner
March 13, 2014
THERE was a céad míle fáilte for Rónán Ó Domhnaill at Áras an Uachtaráin where he was appointed as the new Irish language commissioner.
President Michael D Higgins signed the warrant of appointment at the Áras at a ceremony which was attended by family members. Connemara-native Mr Ó Domhnaill (38) is well known for his work as a political correspondent with Nuacht RTÉ and TG4. His wife, Irene Ní Nualláin, who is a reporter with TG4 nuacht, and the couple’s two daughters Róisín (2) and Maeve (1) attended the ceremony where the new commissioner was presented with his seal of office, alongside the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dinny McGinley.
www.independent.ie
An mbraitheann slánú na Gaeilge ar thacaíocht rialtais?
March 13, 2014
Dioplóma Iarchéime san Aistriúchán agus san Eagarthóireacht (Ar Líne)
March 13, 2014
Bainisteoir Oideachais
March 13, 2014
‘Ruairi Quinn wants to see himself as the man who changed the system’
March 12, 2014
IT’S more about his name than the students.
That’s according to 27,000 protesting teachers who believe that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn will ruin relationships between teachers and their parents. One union official claimed that Mr Quinn was “trying to make a name for himself ” with the shake-up of the Junior Cert. Sean Carr, a learning resources and PE teacher at 850-pupil St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny, was joined on the picket line by several colleagues, including Finn Harps manager Ollie Horgan ( also PE) and Donegal GAA All Star Colm McFadden (maths). They were joined by their colleagues in a protest at more changes being introduced in schools.
“Ruairi Quinn wants to see himself as the man who changed the system and to make a name for himself,” said Mr Carr, a shop steward. “The fact is this is being rushed through. We’re all for change and teachers don’t mind change as long as it makes sense and we are given the time to implement them. “He (Quinn) hasn’t consulted us, isn’t providing the support we need and has ignored us. “This, of course, is all happening at a time when our nearest neighbours in Britain are moving towards scrapping the assessment- led GCSEs and bringing back O Levels.” Just across the Co Donegal town, teachers on Ireland’s newest school campus have similar fears. The Irish- language-medium Colaiste Ailigh’s new € 7m school building opened three months ago after 10 years of portacabins. “Taking away independent assessment will destroy the relationships between teachers and parents,” said Celine Gallagher, an Irish-speaking French native who teaches English and French to some of the school’s 220 pupils.
Concerns
“We welcome change but this system will not be right for our children and they are the people who count.” Her colleague, Seosamh Mac Ceallabbhui, who teaches Junior Cert maths, said: “Taking away independent assessment is a major problem. Parents unhappy with marks will be coming to knock on our doors and that will change the dynamic between all the stakeholders. It will cause friction.” The defiant mood of teachers was reflected at the other end of the country, in Cork. “This is all about getting the minister and the Department of Education to listen to our concerns,” one teacher protesting in Bishopstown said. “All we are pleading for is some consultation and an assurance that our concerns will be acted upon,” she added. Protests were mounted throughout Cork city and county as the ASTI and TUI united to voice their fears about the proposals. Teacher unions have warned that further protests will be mounted if their concerns are not taken into account.
www.independent.ie
27,000 teachers protest over reform
March 12, 2014
TUI members have ‘no confidence’ in plan for new secondary school junior cycle
Teachers protested against the new junior cycle plans yesterday as the Minister for Education defended the programme and rejected claims that the reforms were moving too fast. Staff from up to 750 schools across the country voiced their opposition to the new Junior Cycle Student Award programme they feel would “downgrade” secondary-level education. The demonstration of up to 27,000 teachers was organised by the Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) and ASTI. The Irish Times spoke to TUI president Gerard Craughwell during the protest at Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock. He said teachers were angry at Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s failure to listen to their concerns. ‘Dangerous experiment’ “This is happening today because of the levels of frustration teachers are feeling,” he said. “We have no confidence in the Minister’s plan. What scares the living hell out of all of us is this is due to start in September. I think this is a dangerous experiment with children’s lives and children’s futures.”
Mr Craughwell said teachers wanted the Government to take another year to examine the plan and sit down for talks. “It’s about the education system we cherish – we built it and we’ll be damned if we let someone destroy it. “Academics are complaining about our own system being dumbed down already and this will make things worse. It’s a grand experiment that has already failed in the UK.” ASTI president Sally Maguire said teachers believed the proposals posed serious threats to education standards. “The key issue here is the assessment: there is no transparency. And how will it be implemented? Will it be the same in Wexford as it is Galway?” Defending changes Mr Quinn has defended the pace of the reforms and rejected claims they would damage the system and affect the performance of pupils. Speaking outside Leinster House yesterday, he said he had slowed down the process to allow full consultation, training and preparation.
“What was supposed to be completed by June 2020, is now going to be stretched out to June 2022,” he said. Mr Quinn said there was some flexibility, but the tradition of having a State examination at the end of third year would no longer happen. “I want to hear from the teachers. They can’t just say we don’t like this and we don’t want to do it. That ship has left the harbour,” he said. Both unions are holding a ballot from their members up to and including strike. The results will be announced on March 26th.
www.irishtimes.com
Airgead le sábháil? Glac é ó na Gaeil arís
March 12, 2014
Cuireann Foras stop le maoiniú d’irisí Gaeilge
March 12, 2014
Learning the hard way about changes to Junior Cycle reform
March 12, 2014
The proposed Junior Cycle programme has run into strong opposition from teachers.
How radical are the changes and what do they mean, asks Education Correspondent Niall Murray. IT HAS been the subject of controversy in education circles for almost 18 months but Education Minister Ruairi Quinn looks set to plough ahead with his radical changes to how students are assessed on their first three years of second-level education.
While much of the focus has been on the substantive — and very important — question of who should examine students, the bigger picture of the wider proposals may have been lost on the general public, particularly to parents and students. The key principle underlying the Junior Cycle Framework document, published by Mr Quinn in October 2012, is to change the focus of those first three years from exams and results to what and how students learn. This has received wide backing, including that of teachers, but anxieties remain about aspects of assessment and resourcing.
The following is a summary of the main elements of Mr Quinn’s plan.
-The Junior Cycle Student Award will replace the Junior Certificate from 2017 and eventually all subjects will be marked by students’ own teachers. However, in the initial years and possibly beyond, the State Examinations Commission will continue to mark the written exams in English, maths, and Irish.
-For each full subject, 60% of marks will go for the final exam near the end of third year, but the remaining 40% is to be awarded for school-based assessments, likely to be twice and at the same time nationally — in the final term of second year and before Christmas in third year, replacing normal in-school tests and mocks.
For English, this is to include testing of oral communication followed near the end of junior cycle by assessing a collection of students’ written coursework.
This component was always intended to be marked in-school, even in the proposals in 2011 to Mr Quinn from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment on which teacher unions are represented, whereas it had proposed the final written exams continue to be marked externally through the SEC.
-In response to teacher concerns, an extra day and a half of continuous professional development (CPD) over three years is being planned above that already underway since late last year for teachers of English. Theirs is the first subject for which a new curriculum is being rolled out, beginning next September, with assessments beginning in 2016 and final written exams in summer 2017.
The Department of Education is also allowing for up to four days of CPD for teachers of each other subject as they are being introduced, to cover the new curriculum for a subject as well as school-based assessment requirements, although teachers remain of the belief these provisions are inadequate.
A further one day per year will be allowed, during which schools may close, to facilitate whole-school training on the wider issues around the new assessment regime.
-The final written exam will be just one paper of no more than two hours’ duration and, with the exception of English, Irish, and maths, will be taken at one level and during the traditional school year, in the second week in May. For non-core subjects, the papers will be set by the SEC but marked by teachers, with school-based moderation supported by a common toolkit to support assessment.
-In the early years of the JCSA, English, Irish, and maths will be taken at either higher or ordinary level, and will be timetabled in June during the same period as the Leaving Cert. The papers will be set by the SEC, which will also be responsible for their marking.
-The NCCA is finalising a new curriculum in science, to be phased in for those starting second-level schooling in September 2015. Business studies and Irish were to have been added in the same year — with both new curriculums also nearing completion — but this was adjusted in January in recognition of teacher concerns, and they will now be introduced instead from September 2016 and have final exams for students completing third year in 2019.
Revised curriculums for two more subjects — art and modern languages — instead of four will be introduced from 2017, with remaining changes following in the next two years.
-Students will generally take eight full subjects or their equivalent for the JCSA, but from the first-year intake in September 2015, schools must limit the number of full subjects that students can take for certification purposes to 10, or the equivalent mix of full subjects and short courses.
-As well as traditional full subjects, schools may also offer a range of short courses. A combination of two short courses could be used instead of one full subject to meet the certification requirements, meaning a student could complete assessments in six full subjects and four short courses.
Short courses would be taught over 100 hours (compared to the 200 to 240 hours needed for other main subjects) and the NCCA is designing six optional courses that schools can choose to offer if they wish from next autumn: Chinese language and culture; civic, social and political education; social, personal, and health education; physical education; artistic performance; programming and coding; a personal project; caring for animals; digital media literacy.
Schools can also devise their own short courses, as long as they satisfy the learning principles underpinning the junior cycle framework.
-The current grading system for the Junior Certificate — A, B, C and so on — will be replaced by the following awards:
-Achieved with distinction (90% to 100%);
-Achieved with higher merit (75% to 89%);
-Achieved with merit (55% to 74%);
-Achieved (40% to 54%);
-Not achieved (0% to 39%).
For small numbers of students in specific categories of mild or moderate general learning disabilities, schools can begin from next September to include priority learning units (PLUs) which also form part of the junior cycle framework.
A programme to include PLUs can be put in place for students in mainstream schools where their special needs prevent them from accessing some or all subjects or short courses. This should lead to an award at level 2 of the qualifications framework, one stage below the level 3 currently given to the Junior Certificate and proposed to be given the JCSA. The five PLUs — communicating and literacy, numeracy, personal care, living in a community, and preparing for work — focus on the basic social, pre-vocational and life skills of the students involved.
-Part of the Government’s literacy and numeracy strategy, which requires teachers to focus on these aspects of learning across all subjects, is incorporated in the revised junior cycle.
Beginning with those starting first year in 2015, students must take standardised assessments in English and maths in second term of second year, beginning in spring 2017. This is happening a year later than originally planned, and will be followed by the first testing of second-year students in science in spring 2018, when students in all-Irish schools will also be tested in the language in addition to English, maths, and science.
www.irishexaminer.com
Teachers ‘won’t bow to parent exam pressure’
March 12, 2014
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn said teachers should be able to withstand any pressure from parents when it comes to awarding grades to their own pupils under the new-style Junior Cert.
Mr Quinn was speaking after thousands of second-level teachers staged a lunchtime protest in opposition to some of the reforms planned for Junior Cycle pupils, starting in September. At the heart of much of the teacher resistance is the abolition of the traditional Junior Certificate exams and their replacement with assessment by teachers of their own pupils for a new certificate called the Junior Cycle Students Award (JCSA), to be issued by schools.
Many teachers fear it will change their role from advocate to judge and jury and expose them to undue pressure and criticism from parents. But Mr Quinn said teachers are “highly professional” and as things stood “parents do not come and give out about the marks awarded to their children in the second-year Christmas exams. “Teachers are professional enough to withstand it,” he said. Teachers also warn that the objectivity of the state exams and independently awarded certificate will be lost with a switch to teacher assessment, which will lead to a variation in standards between schools. Mr Quinn said guidance would be provided by the State Examinations Commission and others and it would not be a case of almost 750 schools “going in different directions”. Yesterday’s protest did not disrupt classes, but teacher opposition to the Junior Cycle reform plans could yet have an impact on schools and their pupils. Both second- level teacher unions, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), are balloting members on industrial action and the results will be known on March 26. The TUI is also asking its members to vote on possible strike action.
Fair
ASTI president Sally Maguire, who attended the protest outside Newpark Comprehensive School, Blackrock, Co Dublin, said teachers wanted a fair, transparent, objective and equitable exams process for Junior Cycle students. She said anything less had “the potential to seriously undermine education standards and to exacerbate inequalities between students and schools”. TUI president Gerard Craughwell, who also participated in the protest, said Ireland enjoyed the highest level of public satisfaction with the education system and schools, and such trust would be put at risk with the planned discontinuation of external assessment at Junior Cycle level. He also said there remained an unacceptable lack of concrete information about how the new programme would work in practice.
“With less than six months before implementation is scheduled to begin, this is nowhere near good enough. Change for which adequate preparation has not been made can cause lasting damage to the education system and the educational experience of students,” he added
www.indepedent.ie
