Junior cert changes will hit rural schools hardest say teachers

The proposed changes to the Junior Certificate will have a bigger impact in rural schools than their urban counterparts, according to a local educator.

Hundreds of locally based teachers took to the picket line last Thursday, their second one day strike in two months, in protest at the government’s plans to force them to correct their students’ continuous assessment as part of a major overhaul of the Junior Certificate.

One teacher from the Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, who asked not to be named, warned that the proposed changes could have a profound affect on parent-teacher and pupil-teacher relationships, particularly in rural schools.

“We know our students’ parents personally and it puts us in a difficult position if we start assessing them. I have a young lad coming on and I know I would not like his own teachers assessing his work. That would be my take on it,” she said.

Science teacher Denis Kelly, who is the ASTI representative at St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rochfortbridge, told the Westmeath Examiner that while the union are not against continuous assessment, they do not believe that getting teachers to correct their students’ work will benefit anyone.

"We feel that the exam system that we have is one of the most trustworthy in the world. We’d also like to keep the relationship that we have parents and students and that we are all working on the same side.

“Of course, we are capable of being objective but I still think that the system we have is excellent. Parents trust our Junior Cert and Leaving Cert and I think people want to keep that. When you talk to a lot of the Leaving Cert students they will say that it is an import exam in preparation.

“We are going to fight and try and get the best possible compromise. We are not against reform but we want to retain the independence of state exams. Of course, we are saying that the 30 or 40% assessment is a great idea but let’s have that assessed outside the school.”