{"id":532,"date":"2012-10-08T09:30:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/junior-cert-change-raise-concerns\/"},"modified":"2012-10-08T09:30:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:30:59","slug":"junior-cert-change-raise-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/junior-cert-change-raise-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Cert Change Raise Concerns \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Junior Cert Change Raise\u00a0Concerns\u00a0\u00a0\u2013<\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dublin South West representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD has\u00a0expressed a cautious\u00a0welcome to\u00a0some of the\u00a0measures announced\u00a0 in proposals to reform the Junior Certificate Examination but\u00a0 has expressed huge\u00a0concerns that teachers and schools\u00a0will now\u00a0be\u00a0expected to assess their own students\u2019 work<\/p>\n

Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe worrying fall in literacy and numeracy standards in recent years can\u00a0be partly\u00a0 attributed to the Junior Certificate and there is a general consensus that this 20-year-old exam needs to be reformed.<\/div>\n

“Education Minister Ruair\u00ed Quinn\u00a0is implementing radical changes to an exam that\u00a0traditionally was of key importance to young people during their first four years at secondary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0support the concept\u00a0of providing a system where\u00a0 there is less emphasis on learning by rote and greater importance placed on\u00a0a student having to think and work out problems with\u00a0continual assessment throughout their school years.<\/p>\n

\u201c The new revised Junior Certificate exam syllabuses are to be drawn up by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and will combine traditional subjects with a number of short courses in areas such as digital media, entrepreneurship, sustainable energy and living and are to include for the first time the\u00a0Chinese language and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these\u00a0proposed changes\u00a0have the potential to\u00a0create an educational environment where\u00a0 future generations of young people leaving Irish schools are better equipped to meet the demands of an evolving workplace and the\u00a0Global Market.<\/div>\n
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Any talk of reform\u00a0 will\u00a0 be rendered meaningless unless our education system is properly resourced and this includes ensuring there are incentives for the most capable graduates to enter new\u00a0careers.<\/div>\n
\u201cMoves to introduce standardised tests in numeracy and English reading in second year, from 2014, also\u00a0have the potential to\u00a0improve literacy and numeracy standards that are so essential achieving an individual\u2019s academic potential.<\/div>\n

\u201cI also welcome the proposals to have in place standardised tests in science related subjects,\u00a0but this must be accompanied by changes in how science is taught at primary level which\u00a0currently averages at a pityful\u00a0one and half hours per week, well below the OECD average.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest\u00a0concerned around these reform\u00a0relates to\u00a0the plans to have teachers assessing their own students\u2019 work. This is likely to place schools and \u00a0teachers in a very difficult position both in terms of their increased work load, the time they have to teach and problems with objectivity when assessing their own student\u2019s work.<\/div>\n
This may well end \u00a0what is for students, parents and teachers a credible, independent, objective and fair examination and certification system\u201d.<\/div>\n

\u201cThere will also be\u00a0the added burden and pressure from parents, particularly those who have unrealistic expectations of their own children and it is an aspect of the reform proposals for the Junior Certificate that\u00a0needs more careful consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother issue that we will be looking at is the future status of history and geography and how they will be affected should the number of core subjects within the Junior Cert be reduced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it would be a retrograde step to downgrade either of these subjects as they are a vital part of\u00a0the\u00a0school curriculum.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“These proposed changes would als\u00a0appear to abolishing the Junior Certificate as we know it and will introduce a system where the student recieves the Certificate signed and sealed off from\u00a0the local school of the student\u00a0rather than a State Certificate.<\/div>\n
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“This will proposal in my opinion\u00a0will undermine the quality of the Certificate, create problems for potential\u00a0employers and may well\u00a0reduce the standing of the Certificate Internationally.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Junior Cert is seen as having a high status by students, parents and teachers. It is this \u2018high status\u2019 which provides a focus for student motivation, learning and achievement at Junior Cycle level\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior Cert Change Raise\u00a0Concerns\u00a0\u00a0\u2013 \u00a0 Dublin South West representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD has\u00a0expressed a cautious\u00a0welcome to\u00a0some of the\u00a0measures announced\u00a0 in proposals to reform the Junior Certificate Examination but\u00a0 has expressed huge\u00a0concerns that teachers and schools\u00a0will now\u00a0be\u00a0expected to assess their own students\u2019 work Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said: \u201cThe worrying fall in literacy and numeracy standards in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}