Changes to junior cycle education
March 13, 2014
A chara, – I think it is necessary to remind the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn,
regarding his plans for the Junior Cycle Student Award programme, that the substantial changes and improvements that have taken place in Irish education over the past 20 years were all implemented and delivered by teachers – the introduction of transition year, the Leaving Certificate vocational programme and the Leaving Certificate applied programme (the last of which is probably the reason that Ireland has the highest student retention rate in Europe).
We have welcomed greater integration of children with special educational needs and learning difficulties into mainstream education, adapting our educational provision and methodologies to their needs. Social, personal and health education (SPHE) and civic, social and political education (CSPE) have come on stream at Junior Cert level. Practical examinations and project work form part of the assessment of almost all practical subjects, and many schools have also introduced the oral Irish exam at Junior Certificate level. All schools have embraced technology in the classroom, and numerous changes to syllabuses, the latest being Project Maths.
All these changes have been embraced by teachers in an effort to improve the suitability and quality of the education we provide on a daily basis to students all over this country. Teachers are not opposed to change. We welcome it. We are at the coal face of education, seeing the changing needs of our students every day, and yet Mr Quinn refuses to listen to us. Not a very good example for the children of the country, and nor would their teachers be if we sat back and were bullied into introducing a flawed educational programme rather than standing up to protect the rights of the students in our care. – Is mise,
GEAROIDÍN O’DWYER,
Abberley,
Killiney, Co Dublin.
Sir, – This is a plea to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to speak to the Welsh minister for education Huw Lewis before he changes the Junior Cert. On Newsnight recently he was asked why Wales had plummeted in international school rankings. The reply – they had changed from state exams to individual school assessments. We need to up our game here, not drop it. – Yours,
MAURA McSWEENEY,
Mount Albany,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.
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