Fifty-Fifty For Junior Cert?

Discussions are in place to consider the revision of the Junior Cert exam.

In a bid to overhaul the grading system, proposals have been put forth, such as a fifty-fifty and a sixty-forty split between internal and external assessment.

The proposals place a heavy emphasis on school-based portfolio work , a move which may be rejected by the main second-level teacher union and the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI).

The confidential briefing document has been prepared at Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn's request.

Reform of the Junior Cert is Mr Quinn's main policy priority after the ranking of 15-year-old students slumped in the last reports. The council for curriculum assessment will submit final proposals next month.

The document from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment however says a "fifty-fifty split (between written external exams and school-based assessment) is being discussed but so is a sixty-forty divide in favour of the external component".

A Department of Education spokesman said there was an ambitious timetable for reform and that the Minister hoped the new course could be rolled out from September 2012, with the first revised Junior Cert in 2015.

Under the proposals, changes to the amount of subjects taken, have also been discussed. It is outlined that a maximum of 8 subjects would be assessed in comparison to as many as twelve or more currently being evaluated by the Cert.

It is hoped with the revised Junior Cert, all students would still take a written exam in June in their eight subjects. But this would be accompanied by a portfolio component assessed by the school and externally moderated by the State Exams Commission.

The ASTI will not agree to any system where teachers are assessing their own pupils but the department hopes a compromise can be reached. Although they also aware that the union may be slow to co-operate with the new proposal.

Under the council for curriculum and assessment proposals, students would also complete 'short courses' which would be assessed within their schools. Some of these courses would be specified by the council, but schools could also develop their own short programmes locally.

(LB/KMcA)