Minister insists Junior Cert overhaul will go ahead
October 22, 2012
The major overhaul of the Junior Certificate will proceed as planned despite teachers’ claims they have not been consulted, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn insisted yesterday.
While the executive of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (Asti) met to consider the changes announced last month by Mr Quinn, he was outlining the plans to school principals at their annual conference in Galway. Among the planned changes to be phased in from 2014 is that teachers will set and mark exams and project work for their own students. Irish, English, and maths will continue to be set by the State Examinations Commission, for a few years. Mr Quinn told the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals that the changes will go ahead as announced.
“The decisions have been made, that’s my responsibility as a politician and minister — to make decisions and then consult people about how to implement them,” Mr Quinn said.
“It’s an important distinction. Some of our colleagues in the education space have confused the two.”
An Asti statement said its standing committee has made plans for a consultation among its members over the coming months, with the findings to be given to Mr Quinn after a national conference in April.
“There is a lot of anger in schools that the views and experiences of teachers were not sought before these reforms were announced,” Asti president Gerry Breslin said.
The plan was based largely around a draft framework produced by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, which includes teacher union representatives, a year ago. Mr Quinn went further than its recommendations by making the entire exam and assessment plans school-based.
“While the Junior Certificate has flaws, one of its greatest strengths is that it has a high status in the minds of students, teachers, and parents. The decision to axe State certification at junior cycle level will have a negative impact on students’ educational experiences,” Mr Breslin said.
Mr Quinn said yesterday there should be no additional work for teachers and that training will be provided on assessment methods and moderation procedures to ensure fairness and transparency. School work done in second and third year will be worth 40% of marks in each subject and will be set and marked by students’ own teachers. Mr Quinn said he had incorrectly referred to this element as continuous assessment. “It’s not continuous assessment, it’s periodic work programme assessment, I want to clarify that,” he said.
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Parents to be surveyed on school patronage
October 15, 2012
Another area of Dublin has been included in the list of areas where parents will be surveyed on the possibility of replacing a Catholic primary school with a new patron.
The Department of Education is to begin surveying five of the areas this month and extend it to the other 39 areas next month. However, it is understood issues which have arisen with some parties to the process have delayed the exercise. The announcement of a new primary school to be opened in Dublin 4 in the short-term, means prospective patrons are now being asked instead if they wish to take over a school in the Ballyfermot/Chapelizod/Palmerstown area. The Irish Examiner has also learned at least five groups have expressed interest in becoming patrons of new schools in some or most of the 43 areas already identified, in the event there is parental demand for change.
They include established patrons: City and county VECs in the relevant areas, the multi-denominational schools group Educate Together, and all-Irish schools’ patron An Foras Pátrúnachta. Interest has also been expressed by Nigerian-founded church the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which applied unsuccessfully last year to become patron in three areas of Dublin where new primary schools are planned. The National Learning Network has also sought to become a patron. The applicant patrons will be banned from doing leaflet drops under a Department of Education code aimed at ensuring a level playing field. A spokesperson for the department said details of the survey process and where they will be carried out will be announced later this month. In each area, the parents of all primary pupils and those with children not yet at school will be asked if they are satisfied with current choices of schools and, if not, which of the patrons interested in taking over a school in their area they would prefer. The areas include 12 in the Dublin Catholic archdiocese, and four each in Tuam, Killaloe, and Waterford & Lismore. There are three areas each in the Cloyne and Cork & Ross dioceses.
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Quinn: Radical reforms will end ‘teaching to the test’
October 5, 2012
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn says his plan for the Junior Certificate will benefit students and mean teachers are no longer under pressure to “teach to the test”.
His radical changes will see junior cycle students examined entirely by schools instead of the State.
He has largely rubber-stamped the reforms proposed last November to change the focus of the junior cycle to learning instead of preparing students for a final exam.
However, he went beyond what the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) advised him by deciding all elements of the Junior Certificate will eventually be set and marked by students’ teachers instead of by the State Examinations Commission.
He said regular in-school assessment at lower second-level was a feature of the best education systems.
The other main elements will include:
* Most students sitting exams in eight to 10 subjects;
* The option to take up to four short courses, with marks in two to be used in place of a traditional subject;
* Final exams will be worth 60% of total marks and, except for English, Irish, and maths, will be taken in normal school time in May;
* A new five-point awards system will replace the traditional system of A, B, etc down to no grade;
* The phased introduction of changes, starting with students entering second-level in 2014, with third-year students in 2020;
* The SEC will eventually withdraw from setting and correcting the Junior Certificate.
However, though Mr Quinn says the plan will liberate teachers and students, and give parents more information on pupils’ achievements, unions have strong concerns.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said it would be grossly naïve to presume a certificate awarded by a school would hold the same status as one awarded by the State, and ending an anonymously marked exam system will impact negatively on perceptions of impartiality and student-teacher relations.
“This is not about being paid to correct exams, we’re angry that there has been no consultation with us, or with parents and school managers. And we don’t have faith that the resources and funding for training or for administering exams in schools will be provided,” said ASTI general secretary Pat King.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland said there was serious concern about increased workload against a background of slashes to school staffing and other cutbacks.
Mr Quinn rejected the TUI’s assertion that key elements of the plan were driven by budgetary rather than educational rationale. He said significant professional development for teachers and principals would start next year.
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Residents fear loss of green area over school
September 28, 2012
Residents from the Mayfield and Montenotte area of Cork claimed yesterday their use of a green area — which they have enjoyed for as long as anyone can remember — is about to end with the building of a gaelscoil and other changes.
The case between residents and Cork City Council opened at a special sitting of Cork Circuit Court yesterday. It is expected to continue until Monday. Marie Baker, senior counsel for the residents, said in reference to the council’s plans to dispose of lands for the construction of Gaelscoil An Ghoirt Álainn, and citing case law, she was seeking, “a declaration of the existing right to saunter and wander” at the Tank Field. She had 29 witnesses to call to give evidence of the uses made of the Tank Field over the years.
Her first witness, Brendan Goggin of St Christopher’s Rd, Montenotte, recalled starting school in 1949 and going to school through the field, crossing it back and forth throughout the school day, and playing there in the evenings. “The Tank Field was our centre of activities for hurling, football, soccer, rounders; we had trenches, we built cabins, we had games of chasing, cowboys and Indians and games of cards.
“Nobody in my 68 years has ever put an impediment on me walking in the Tank Field. Obviously, if there was a match or training on you would respect that,” Mr Goggin said. Precise acreage differed between witnesses but, in approximate terms, the new gaelscoil would take up two acres; Brian Dillon’s GAA club’s unfenced pitches, one of which is to be moved, would take up two acres and over six acres would remain.
Ms Baker SC argued that even though the six acres would remain, the changes to the area would effectively end the recreational rights enjoyed by the community, not least in terms of accessing the six acres. Dave Holland SC for Cork City Council outlined details of many access points that residents would have to the six acres of the Tank Field which would not be subject to change. He said that to the extent there would be fences, walls, or railings, there would be numerous gaps to allow access to the green area.
Mr Holland referred to the language of the case law and said residents “will be able to wander and saunter as they may have heretofore done in the remainder of the Tank Field other than the bit going to the gaelscoil. I understand that some residents do not believe that will be so”. Kieran O’Keeffe from St Christopher’s Rd said he had been using the field since 1948. He said: “I am in favour of the gaelscoil but not in my green field.”
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Surveys on primary school patronage to begin
September 18, 2012
Surveys to find out if parents want more non-Catholic primary schools and which patron they would prefer are to begin within weeks.
In June, 44 areas were identified as needing a greater choice of school patronage. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn will announce soon which five of these are to be surveyed first. The local views will be gathered through surveys, most likely with a choice of responding on paper or online of parents of children already in primary school and those with sons or daughters not yet attending schools in the areas concerned. In order to avoid duplication or having the surveys distorted by interested parties, anyone completing the survey will have to provide personal information on a confidential basis, to include name, address, and PPS numbers.
The 44 areas include many with up to eight primary schools but which have little or no non-Catholic provision to cater for the diversity of local families. Among the established patrons to have applied in most areas are the local city or county vocational education committees (VECs), all-Irish patron body An Foras Pátrúnachta, and multi-denominational schools group Educate Together. It is understood that expressions of interest were received in relation to two or three areas in Cork from humanist groups. The Redeemed Christian Church of God, which previously sought to be patron to two new schools in Dublin, has also indicated it wants to run a number of schools. However, it is unclear if either group meets the criteria for being a patron and whether they will be included in the list of patrons offered to parents in those areas. Those choices will be listed in a survey to be conducted among parents following the distribution of information by the Department of Education.
Parents will be asked if they are satisfied with the current choice of patrons in their area and, if not, which of the patron bodies interested in running schools in their area they would prefer. While each applicant patron has submitted a short description of who they are and what they propose to set up, they are being asked to sign up to a voluntary code banning leaflets, advertising or public meetings that could give them an advantage over other groups. The initial surveys will be carried out within weeks in five of the 44 areas, to identify any potential difficulties with the methodology, and the remaining 39 will be surveyed in November. The timescale for any resultant hand-overs is uncertain but the survey outcomes will be discussed in early 2013 among the Catholic school communities where a need for a more diverse mix of patronage is identified. A key consideration would be which school or schools might close in each area, and whether their pupils and staff would be amalgamated entirely with one neighbouring school or distributed among the other Catholic schools.
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Higher-level divide between genders
September 14, 2012
Girls are more likely to take higher-level Irish and maths and continue to get better grades in most Junior Certificate subjects.
With much made of the improved uptake in honours maths in last month’s Leaving Certificate results and again in this week’s Junior Cert results, today’s statistics from the State Examinations Commission show there is still a big gender gap.
The results of girls are consistently better than boys at both State exams, in line with trends internationally, although there is evidence that males are making up the difference each year.
Slightly fewer than half of the 28,545 females who took Junior Cert Irish exams in June opted for the higher-level papers.
This is significantly higher than the 46.5% of more than 29,500 boys who sat maths, while a bigger proportion of boys chose the foundation-level exam.
The overall numbers who sat higher-level maths were up almost 2,500 on last year to nearly 28,000.
More boys than girls still took higher-level Leaving Cert maths this year — 23% compared to 21% — although the rise in female honours students was more significant.
A doubling of marks for the optional oral Irish test to 40% has been flagged as a factor in rising numbers sitting the subject at higher level for Junior Cert. The gender divide in this regard is even wider than at maths, with 59% of girls and just 44% of boys taking higher-level Irish.
Almost 86% of girls taking higher Irish got an honours grade (A, B, or C) but just 73% of males did so, while females outperformed males for honours at higher maths — 81.3% compared to 77.2%.
IRISH EXAMINER
Surge in numbers taking higher maths and Irish
September 12, 2012
Nearly half of all Junior Certificate students took higher-level maths this year and changes to the marking scheme have prompted another rise in numbers attempting higher Irish.
State Examinations Commission figures show that 48% sat higher-level maths, the highest since at least 2001. Although the SEC did not have earlier records yesterday, it could the first time higher-level candidates outnumber those who took ordinary-level exams, with just 7% sitting foundation level.
The new Project Maths syllabus was not being examined, except at 24 schools piloting the course, where students sat two entirely different papers, but its roll-out was cited by the SEC as an influence. “As increasing the uptake of maths at higher level is one of the explicit aims of Project Maths, this indication of a greater uptake is to be welcomed,” said the SEC.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said he hoped the rise was an indication of an ongoing trend in the subject.
“This increase has occurred even without the ‘carrot’ of bonus points for maths, whose introduction at Leaving Certificate saw a large leap in the numbers opting for the higher-level paper,” said Mr Quinn.
However, the rise could signify a knock-on effect of the bonus points system, with students already seeing the benefits of sticking at higher level for the Leaving Cert in two or three years’ time, despite the additi-onal work involved. While there was a slight fall in higher-level uptake at the 24 pilot schools, almost exactly half — 1,207 of 2,418 — of their Junior Cert maths students took higher level, while 44% sat ordinary level and 6% took foundation maths.
The doubling of marks given for the optional oral Irish exam appears to have a continued effect, with more than half of this year’s 50,809 candidates in the subject taking higher level — 51.4% up from 49.5% and 48.5% in 2011 and 2010, respectively. Despite union directives that members should not examine students in their schools, eased slightly this year by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, 7,388 students took the optional oral Irish test as part of their exam this year. This is a 72% increase on last year, and the 155 out of 730 second-level schools where the optional oral was offered compares to just 94 last year, 54 in 2010 — when 40% of marks were first awarded for the oral test — and only 24 in 2009.
Almost 40,000 sat higher-level science, a key target subject for the Government’s ambitions, although the numbers getting an honours grade slipped below four-in-five of higher-level candidates. With 76% of science candidates taking higher level, compared to 72% just two years ago, it could be encouraging for those hoping to have more students take science subjects to Leaving Cert.
There continues to be a high fail rate at French, although the 5.3% of higher-level and 11.6% of ordinary-level candidates getting an E, F, or no grade are lower than last year and 2010. Teachers’ Union of Ireland president Gerard Craughwell said that, while 34,757 sat French exams, the considerably lower numbers taking German (9,470), Spanish (6,698), and Italian add to concerns about relatively low numbers of language graduates in Ireland.
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Teacher college mergers aim to maintain standard
September 7, 2012
Tighter controls on numbers training to become teachers are needed to ensure the high standard of applicants is not reduced as jobs become more scarce.
The recommendation comes from an international group of experts. They have suggested that the 19 publicly funded colleges — which offer more than 40 teaching courses — be merged into six specialist education centres, and this plan has been approved by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.
The review commissioned for him by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) was focused on improving pre-service training for primary and second-level teachers rather than cutting costs.
The recommendations include moves to have students of some smaller colleges take lectures in nearby larger colleges, while changes to overall governance might also occur.
The group said the standard of applicants for teacher training courses was among the highest in the world, but a lack of jobs may deter top people applying in future.
“Where there is an oversupply of teachers, with the consequent reduction in opportunities for employment, it may not be possible to continue to attract high calibre entrants into teaching,” the review panel wrote.
Despite a slight drop in the numbers graduating last year, the 3,463 who qualified as teachers was almost 600 more than in 2007. They have problems finding work as a result of cuts in schools, although rising pupil numbers and retirements may make more jobs available in coming years.
However, as well as over the numbers, concern was expressed — particularly in relation to second level — about the emergence of qualified teachers of subjects not needed by schools while there are shortages of teachers fully qualified to take maths or other subjects.
Instead, the group said, wider discussions should be required before colleges develop new teacher training courses.
“It is a waste of precious staff time and effort to develop programmes for which there is no national need,” the experts said.
The report of the review group, chaired by Pasi Sahlberg from Finland, also recommends use of more full-time research-focused lecturers over experienced teachers hired as part-time lecturers.
Mr Quinn has previously said it was wasteful to have 22 colleges, including 19 funded by the State, offering teacher training in a country of this size. Publishing the Sahlberg report, he said the collaborations would mean a smaller number of teacher training colleges would each offer early childhood, primary, post-primary, and adult education.
“We know from research that the quality of our education system can not exceed the quality of our teachers. This is why I am driving changes at both a structural and content level in teacher education.”
He has already sanctioned the extension of degrees for primary teaching from three to four-years and the postgraduate course for second-level teaching from a year to two.
Unions representing academic staff at the colleges called for detailed discussions on the changes before implementation. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland said the transfer of facilities would have significant cost implications.
Many of the proposed groupings are already in talks about mergers and some within the six recommended partnerships have strong existing ties.
Proposed connections
- Dublin City University, St Patrick’s College Dublin, and Mater Dei Institute of Education (in talks with Church of Ireland College of Education).
- Trinity College, Marino Institute of Education, University College Dublin, National College of Art and Design.
- NUI Maynooth and Froebel College, Dublin.
- University of Limerick, Mary Immaculate College, and Limerick Institute of Technology.
- University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology.
- NUI Galway and St Angela’s College Sligo.
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Time for education minister to have faith in his ideals
September 3, 2012
AFTER long debate but little action, this academic year parents will be given a choice to change the patron, and by extension the culture, of their child’s school.
Of over 3,300 primary schools, 44 will be surveyed to ask parents if they wish to change the patron of the school their child attends. The questions to be asked are still a work in progress; the net issue is will parents wish to continue having the local Catholic bishop as patron, or will they opt for change. This change process, still to be defined, is arguably one of the most important departures in Irish education since 1922.
The debate in recent years has been about the choice, and the lack of it, parents have for their child’s education. An almost monocultural, almost always Catholic community, has rapidly given way to a much more diverse and likely permanently changed society.
For the first time there is now a significant community of parents who want non-denominational education.
There is a growing disjuncture in school communities between the lives of parents and the ethos of the schools their children attend. It is debatable how effectively promoted a Catholic ethos is in Catholic schools where clergy are largely absent.
A tradition of lay passivity in the face of a dominant clerical presence has left a legacy of indifference in some class rooms.
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn has long been a crusader for a more liberal, less clerical Ireland. His controversial comment in 1996 about a post-Catholic pluralist Republic seems percipient in retrospect. Now 66 and probably in his final tour at the cabinet table, he has a chance to leave a lasting mark on the fabric of Irish society. As a former minister in economic portfolios during the 1980s and 90s including finance, it will not be lost on him that the Irish left has manifestly failed to implement a social democrat let alone a socialist economic agenda. Now under the cosh of the Troika, Ruairí Quinn in Government is implementing policies the PDs would have lusted after, but hardly dared hope for. Post-Catholic Ireland is coinciding with a post-social democrat future.
In its centenary year Labour has arguably lost the economic argument for another generation. It is seriously threatened again with electoral retribution. The one plank of its policies where it is unquestionably riding the contemporary zeitgeist is what in the civil war of current American politics are called cultural issues. Eamon Gilmore’s description of gay marriage as ‘the civil rights issue of this generation’ and Pat Rabbitte’s warning off Cardinal Brady against Catholic church engagement in any political campaign on abortion are telling.
A generation ago Garret FitzGerald’s constitutional crusade ran into the ground in the face of economic recession and social conservatism. There is little of the latter left. But Ruairí Quinn, who with Michael Noonan, is the remaining veteran of that cabinet, will know that unpopular governments find delivering major change difficult.
Ruairí Quinn in contrast to his own past rhetoric and his colleagues’ current posturing has been remarkably ameliorating in tone towards Catholic educators. Certainly he has harried the religious orders over compensation payments to abuse victims. He has also said he believes he has been caricatured as an enemy of the Catholic church. He envisages Catholic schools that are ‘openly celebratory about their own religion’ in an environment in which parents would have a free choice between denominational and non-denominational schools.
On the face of it, surveying parents in just 44 schools is a modest proposal. Its critics may say disappointingly so. The complexities of transferring not only patronage but property, and the possibility that parents of any persuasion may be reluctant to change the patron of what they regard as well-run schools, will likely mean modest change in the short term. What is at issue is the effectiveness of the mechanism, once instituted, for delivering more sweeping change in the longer term.
In parallel with a mechanism to allow parents change school patronage is a promise for legislation to amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act of 1998. This allows institutions run by religious institutions or orders to bypass anti-discrimination measures ‘where it is reasonable to do so in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution’. An openly gay teacher or an unmarried teacher who becomes pregnant is vulnerable to the censure, or more, of Boards of Management and Patrons. If largely, but not always an implicit pressure, its removal would empower an openness that could be perceived as undermining a school’s ethos. It would also unquestionably vindicate the personal freedoms of the teachers concerned, as well as influencing the school culture of their students.
Given the overwhelming dominance of Catholic schools, vindicating the religious ethos of school communities that decide to adopt one is unlikely to be a priority now. But it flags a future tension. Similarly the expectation of major change in school patronage is unlikely to be met in the short term. The minority Protestant faiths are acutely aware of the importance of schools to their communities. Contrary to perception, they are a lot less part of an emerging liberal consensus than supposed.
Ruairí Quinn is likely to leave behind a school system where change in the statistics on school patronage is modest or negligible. He has an opportunity to empower a change in the attitudes and ethos of individual teachers, and over time of the patronage of more schools, that could cumulatively be transformative. The Catholic school system is now the overextended infrastructure of a reduced faith community. If less faith-run schools are the conscious choice of more committed parents, new challenges will arise around the religious freedoms of fewer and truer religious schools. For now that future horizon is some way off. In retrospect, however, it will likely be seen as having begun under Ruairí Quinn in Autumn 2012.
* Gerard Howlin is a public affairs consultant, and was a senior government adviser from 1997 to 2007.
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School gets free toilet paper
August 30, 2012
A toilet-paper maker has come to the aid of a school that asked pupils to bring in their own toilet paper, towels, and soap to class due to Government funding cuts.
After the Irish Examiner’s weekend story about the policy at Gaelscoil Chloch na gCoillte in Co Cork was discussed on 2FM’s Breakfast with Hector show, producers decided to see if any Irish companies could help out.
Shane McEntaggart, sales manager at Dawn Paper & Tissue, heard the end of the item on the radio show on Monday and was surprised by the situation.
“I suppose it highlights problems with funding at a lot of schools, and we were happy to help in our own small way,” he said.
Every child and staff member at the school will be sent a 10-pack of the company’s new Silk ‘n’ Soft brand from the Drogheda factory, where 18 people work.
The toilet paper can be used in the washbags that all pupils from first to sixth classes must bring to school. The washbags must also include a hand towel and soap.
School principal Carmel Nic Airt said everybody at the school was grateful to Mr McEntaggart for his generous gesture. She said the washbag measure was introduced as the school tried to deal with falling income.
“We’re looking at creative ways to get a better bang for our buck with regard the funding available to us. Funding is being cut back and our costs have gone up,” Ms Nic Airt told radio presenter Hector Ó hEochagáin.
As highlighted in Saturday’s Irish Examiner, despite rising numbers, Department of Education grants to the school for running costs, bills, secretarial and caretaking services fell by €25,500 to €101,587. Like all primary schools, its capitation grant, used for insurance, heating, and other costs, has been cut by another 3.5% this year to €178 for each of the 320 pupils.
Ms Nic Airt said the washbag policy meant the school did not have to increase the €25 charge for each child under its book rental scheme.
With 320 pupils at the school, the gesture from Dawn Paper & Tissue will cost almost €700, as well as the cost of delivery to the school next week.
Breakfast With Hector producer Alan Swan said the colourful radio presenter saw it as an opportunity to help out the school and its families, as well as giving a little bit of promotion to an Irish business.
“This an Irish company doing a new product and hopefully, with their help, any money saved at the school can be used for educational purposes,” he said.
A similar policy introduced in 2009 at a primary school in Carrigaline, Co Cork, prompted a Dublin firm to send a toilet paper supply for its 540 pupils.
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