Junior Cert Results Published

Over 50,000 anxious students will open their Junior Certificate results today.

More than half a million individual grades in 26 different subjects have been delivered to secondary schools nationwide.

It is understood that 15 high achievers have received 12 A grades while 115 secured 11 As and 269 were awarded 10 As. Another 379 got 9 As, 509 managed to secure 8 As and 573 were awarded seven As.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that those who opted into a new math curriculum received high results. Data released by the State Examinations Commission showed a stronger performance among the students who were taught using the new Project Maths syllabus.

The syllabus is designed to encourage students to think on their feet and to discourage exam cramming.

Unlike the traditional Junior Certificate Maths paper, the number of exam questions on the Project Maths paper can vary, and their type, length and difficulty is unpredictable.

The new syllabus will be gradually integrated into all schools. This year over 2,000 students sat the new exam.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has welcomed the results and especially of those students taking higher level science and Math.

He said: "Today’s results are the culmination of many hours of hard work by all the students, their parents and teachers and they all should be very proud of what has been achieved."

Changes Ahead

The Junior Certificate examinations will undergo many changes by 2015. 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 year's reports. The council for curriculum assessment will submit final proposals by the end of the 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.

(LB/CD)