The Leaving Cert's little sister

The Junior Certificate is vital for student appraisal, but suffers from a lack of practical course work, writes Kathryn Holmquist

By the age of 15, British pupils have been tested at least three times, beginning at the age of seven.

But Irish 15-year-olds don't get a chance to be assessed until they reach the Junior Cert. And when they do, they are tested on nine or 10 subjects, compared to seven papers in the Leaving Cert.

The Junior Cert is, first and foremost, an opportunity for pupils to show off how much they know.

It also offers a strong motivation for young people to "get cracking" and master their study skills, says John White, assistant general secretary of the ASTI. "The Junior Cert provides a cohesive coherence, structure and focus for learning, and gives young people their first national assessment of their attainment."

The Junior Cert will show how well you have learned to study, memorise and express information, in a concisely, well-organised way.

Parents need to help children learn to express themselves in a clear manner. Do this by looking over past papers in the various subjects. Analyse the structure of the questions and the answers and work with the child to practise answering the questions in the appropriate format.

While many tend to think of the Junior Cert as the Leaving Cert's poor little sister, it is just as important in many ways. The Junior Cert is a reliable predictor of what subjects a pupil excels at, and how the pupil should direct his or her education for the final years of secondary school.

"We don't want to suggest that a young person's value is reliant on exams. You can over-examine and over-test, and I think in the State we have the balance about right," says White.

Parents, too, get their first taste of what it's like to shepherd a child through the exam process. Making life as easy as possible for the student is a major part of it. Learning to encourage , without smothering the child with overly-high expectations, is a major skill of parenting.

It used to be that the Junior Cert was the first and final exam many secondary students took. Today, it is rare to leave school without a Leaving Cert. Fewer than 10,000 students who sit the Junior Cert will choose not to go on to the Leaving Cert, while 50,000 Junior Cert students will go on to the Leaving Cert. Some will opt for the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) and Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA), both of which concentrate on vocational and technical subjects.

These options have enabled many students with diferent talents to achieve without the pressure of being allowed to do academic subjects only.

Unfortunately, because school guidance counsellors are occupied with Leaving Cert students, many Junior Cert students "are not getting career guidance counselling", says Brian Mooney, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors.

However, it is essential that each Junior Cert student has someone to go through options with them, such as a teacher. Parents need to find the expertise within the school to support their children in the choices they have to make.

When the Junior Cert results come in, it's time for pupils to make choices. For the first time, pupils will have a realistic and objective view of their achievement in the academic context. The results will help pupils to clarify at what level they should be studying, and on what subjects they should focus.

A major criticism of the Junior Cert exam is that there is an over-emphasis on written learning, and that there is a greater need for more oral and practical work, to enable people with various forms of intelligence to excel.

For now, though, we have to live with it. So make the most of the exam and stay focused over the coming weeks. Parents, stay focused on helping students to feel confident, get them to exams on time and make sure they've got plenty of pens, pencils, erasers and parers.