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21/10/2011
'No Obligation' To Reduce Cert Subjects
The Education Minister has taken a step back from his plans to reduce the amount of subjects taken during the Junior certificate examination after being heavily criticised.
Minister Ruari Quinn had proposed that the amount of subjects taken during the exam should be reduced to eight following poor result rankings of students last year.
It was understood that the proposed plans would affect those starting into first year of secondary school in September 2012.
The proposal was strongly criticised by teacher unions who said it would cause chaos in schools.
However the Minister has now said that there is no obligation on schools to limit the number of exam subjects next year or the year after, despite claims that the changes to the exams would be rolled out from 2012.
He did however add that he would be encouraging schools to consider dropping subjects.
The Education Minister has argued that limiting the number of subjects to be examined would reduce the problem of curriculum overload and would make more time for the development of core skills, such as literacy and numeracy.
The Background
In September the Minister announced that the Junior Certificate examinations would undergo many changes by 2015. In a bid to overhaul the grading system, proposals were put forth, such as a fifty-fifty and a sixty-forty split between internal and external assessment.
The proposals placed a heavy emphasis on school-based portfolio work.
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 document from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment however said 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 had 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)
Minister Ruari Quinn had proposed that the amount of subjects taken during the exam should be reduced to eight following poor result rankings of students last year.
It was understood that the proposed plans would affect those starting into first year of secondary school in September 2012.
The proposal was strongly criticised by teacher unions who said it would cause chaos in schools.
However the Minister has now said that there is no obligation on schools to limit the number of exam subjects next year or the year after, despite claims that the changes to the exams would be rolled out from 2012.
He did however add that he would be encouraging schools to consider dropping subjects.
The Education Minister has argued that limiting the number of subjects to be examined would reduce the problem of curriculum overload and would make more time for the development of core skills, such as literacy and numeracy.
The Background
In September the Minister announced that the Junior Certificate examinations would undergo many changes by 2015. In a bid to overhaul the grading system, proposals were put forth, such as a fifty-fifty and a sixty-forty split between internal and external assessment.
The proposals placed a heavy emphasis on school-based portfolio work.
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 document from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment however said 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 had 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)
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