Dynamic leader in the eye of a Junior Certificate storm

EDUCATION PROFILE:FOUR years ago, when then education minister Mary Hanafin dismissed a proposed overhaul of the Leaving Cert as a "Rolls Royce option", many wondered if the department and the curriculum review body were on the same page. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and its chief executive, Anne Looney, seemed at odds with the establishment in general and the minister in particular, writes LOUISE HOLDEN

Now the current Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe, has called for another review, this time of the Junior Cert, and Anne Looney will once again be called upon to put her vision of Irish education on the line. Times are tougher now. Is a trade-down the only option for Looney when she delivers her proposal next month?

“This review was not born yesterday,” says a source. “The process of reforming the Junior Certificate has been in train for many years – since before the recession. Senior figures in the department have been pushing for it.”

O’Keeffe is said to have identified the Junior Cert as a potential legacy, and is counting on Looney to bring about the kind of change that his name can be linked to in perpetuity. It’s a big challenge for the former religion teacher from Walkinstown.

However, Looney and the NCCA have been waiting for years for their chance to get stuck into the Junior Cycle programme. The arrival of O’Keeffe means that there is now the political will. The biggest hurdle has been cleared, but there are many more on the route to reform.

“There are conservative elements on the NCCA council – chiefly the unions and especially Asti, which opposes teacher-led examinations as a matter of principle,” says a source. Teacher-led exams would be key to a reformed Junior Cert, which would be designed to take the emphasis off a terminal State exam.

In the context of Junior Cert reform, the parties have been asked to “forget where they’re coming from,” according to an insider.

“Everyone has been asked to look at this from a 13-year-old’s point of view, rather than from the perspective of a teacher, parent or employer. There will

be issues on the industrial relations side, but I think people overestimate the resistance of teachers to reform. The real conservatives are the parents. They are the single biggest barrier to progress because middle-class parents in particular are so preoccupied with the points race.”

In this context, many parents view the Junior Cert as a necessary preparation for the Leaving Cert, regardless of the educational experience of the child or the possible fallout for non-academic students.

The Opposition is critical of the optics. “The Junior Cert reform programme is being presented as a cost-saving measure rather than a great leap forward,” says one. “The Leaving Cert is an international benchmark that we mess with at our peril. The Junior Cert is a preparation for the Leaving Cert.”

To those who regard the Junior Cert reform process as simply a cost-cutting measure, at least one participant in the review calls for perspective.

“If the Department halved its contribution to fee-paying schools like Blackrock College, it could pay for the Junior Cert twice over with the savings. The Junior Cert is not a plausible target on cost grounds.”

With all these currents pulling Looney under, how can she proceed with a credible reform package next month?

“I don’t think the NCCA will pull back from this challenge,” says a source. “There is a lot of evidence and a lot of support for reform. Anne is one of the most capable thinkers and managers in Irish education at any level. If anyone can pull this off, she can.”

Anne Looney’s first major contribution to the Irish school curriculum was religious studies, a new subject that she devised and delivered as one of her first tasks on the staff of the NCCA. It is now one of the most popular elective subjects on the Junior Cert menu and has been extended to the Leaving Cert as well. The subject has been praised for offering students an opportunity for critical, independent thinking.

Born and raised in Dublin, Looney trained as a teacher and taught English and religion in the Assumption Secondary School in Walkinstown for 14 years. After completing a masters, Looney went to work part-time for the NCCA, developing subjects such as civic, social and political education (CSPE) and social, personal and health education (SPHE). She joined the Council full time in 1997, and four years later delivered the Junior Certificate Religious Studies syllabus. The NCCA’s non-statutory status was changed in 2001, and Looney was appointed its first statutory chief executive officer.

“Anne has a vision for education that she regards as essential rather than desirable,” says an observer. “She worries that children face difficult futures and that we are not currently preparing them for the world they will have to live in.”

“The NCCA has done an exceptional job,” says an industry leader. “Anne Looney and [NCCA chairman] Tom Collins are a powerhouse team. Sometimes the system finds their proposals difficult to digest, but the success of initiatives such as Project Maths is a testament to her resilience. Maths and Irish teachers can be particularly conservative, but Looney has delivered reform despite the vested interests. She’s dynamic, tells it as she sees it and she understands the system.”

Answering for the national curriculum isn’t easy. The NCCA is called to account for all manner of controversies, from the perceived “dumbing down” of maths to the removal of disgraced poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh from the English curriculum. Every person in Ireland has an opinion about what should be on the curriculum, and some subjects have particular political charge, such as history and Irish.

Looney doesn’t fear the media, and will go out to bat for her council when necessary. Like her sister the journalist and broadcaster Fiona Looney, she has a facility for communication. However, Looney is part of an organisation that represents disparate views – and that complicates her public interactions.

“The NCCA can only do what it is tasked to do,” says a close colleague. “It is a servant of what is required, not an initiator. It runs on a partnership model which is both a strength and a weakness. Many partners on the NCCA are not pro-change. Any reform that is delivered has already been passed by all the partners – nothing is imposed.

“However, imposition might be the way to go. We haven’t revolutionised the education system, we are still conservative about reform. But there’s no future for Irish children when the system is part of the past. The NCCA is doing the job it’s designed to do, but whether the design is right – sin cheist eile.”

Reforming the Junior Cert

Anne Looney and the NCCA will deliver a proposal for the reform of the Junior Cert next month. It is both the best and worst of times for such a project

IN THEIR FAVOUR

• Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe wants reform. It is said that he sees a Junior Cert overhaul as the potential footprint of his ministry
• IBEC is in favour of abolishing the "mini-Leaving"
• The success of the Transition Year programme is an endorsement of active learning and project work
• The Council's chairman, Tom Collins (recently appointed vice-president of NUI Maynooth) is a towering figure in Irish education who favours radical reform

ON THE OTHER HAND

• The abolition of the €30 million exam could be regarded as penny-pinching rather than reforming
• Costly measures will be hard to justify
• Asti is opposed to the assessment of students by their own teachers.
• Any reforms will have to be agreed by union members on the NCCA
• Middle-class parents, in particular, value the Junior Cert as practise for the Leaving Cert