Questions not on course, say teachers

Junior Cert history: ordinary and higher levelYesterday's Junior Certificate history paper drew some criticism from teachers who claim it contained elements not covered on the syllabus.

In question 5, students were asked to describe the impact of the Famine on Irish society after 1850, even though the syllabus only covers the topics until that date.

Within the same section, students were asked to discuss the problems faced by immigrants abroad after the Famine.

"Students had a third choice in this section, but since they hadn't covered these two topics, they essentially had no choice at all," said Teachers' Union of Ireland subject convenor Dermot Lucey.

The issue arose again in section 6 when students were tasked with describing Britain between the wars and the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Neither topic is covered in the Junior Certificate history syllabus, according to one commentator.

Once again, students could have dodged these questions at the expense of choice in the section.

"The students I spoke to seemed to think the fault was theirs, that the questions were too hard for them," said Mr Lucy.

"In fact, they couldn't have answered them because they're not on the course."

Apart from these anomalies, yesterday's paper was considered "typical" and "fair". The ordinary level paper offered plenty of choice to students but some of the questions were regarded as unusually challenging.

The Junior Certificate history syllabus is in line for review, but change is not expected until 2008. The current syllabus is too long and places too great an emphasis on content over skills, say teachers.