Junior Cert Irish under review
November 4, 2013
Major reform for the Junior Certificate was announced by the Department of Education last October.
The new structure will be implemented on a phased basis from 2014 and the reformed examination will be taken for the first time in 2017.
Under the new system, students will take between 8 and 10 subjects from a wide range of traditional exam subjects and ‘short courses’ including subjects such as Chinese, Physical Education and Digital Media Literacy. Individual schools will devise a program of subjects from which students will choose.
Schools will be expected to put together a program that will develop the ability and thinking of students with subjects that meet the needs of that particular school body. It is hoped that the new Junior Certificate will see students rather than examinations at the centre of the new approach to assessment.
Irish, English and Mathematics will remain core subjects and 2016 will see Science introduced to this group.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is undertaking a consultation process on the background paper for the review of Irish and submissions are invited from any interested parties on the matter.
Participants are asked to send submissions to consultation@ncca.ie or to take part in the process by filling in either a short survey or a full survey on the NCCA website by 20 December 2013.
Irish is one of the Phase 2 subjects, along with Business Studies and Science, to be introduced to first year students in the autumn of 2015 as part of the junior cycle developments. English, the only Phase 1 subject, will have been introduced the previous year. The new specification for Irish will be published in autumn, 2014, a year in advance of its introduction.
All documents relating to the consultation process are available here.
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