O'Keeffe set to support shake-up of Junior Cert

MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe has signalled his support for a radical shake-up of the Junior Cert exam with fewer subjects and a move away from traditional rote learning.

In a speech to be delivered in Dublin today, he is also due to express concern about the dominance of rote learning in the Leaving Cert exam. The Minister’s move comes only days after a senior academic voiced fears of declining standards, with “spoon-fed’’ second-level students struggling to cope at third level.

At the weekend, Tom Boland, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, voiced fears that Irish graduates were falling behind.

The Minister says recent public debate on education has become increasingly critical of a second-level system seen by many as “driven by rote learning and examination pressures, rather than the promotion of real understanding and skills’’.

He says there is a need for greater emphasis on assessment for learning, practical project and portfolio assessment, and the time which is necessary to promote self-directed learning. Our learners need to be flexible, adaptable, resilient and competent, he says.

Introduced in 1989, the Junior Cert (which replaced the Inter Cert ) was intended to broaden the educational experience of students. But it has increasingly become a mirror image of the Leaving Certificate.

Several Junior Cert subjects are still examined entirely by written exams including English, maths, business studies, history and geography.

This means that the exam is unloved among educationalists who favour independent learning. But parents tend to support the exam, regarding it as an important “dry run” for the Leaving.

A recent ESRI study highlighted significant levels of stress among Junior Cert students taking 10-14 subjects. It also pointed to high levels of disengagement from school by a significant minority – and negative views of teachers and the Junior Cert course.

Mr O’Keeffe said the report indicates that the Junior Cert exam is influenced too heavily by written assessment and has a significant “negative backwash on what is taught and on how students learn’’.

The study, he says, leads to the inevitable conclusion that the current junior cycle curriculum and assessment need to be recast to reflect the fundamental principles of education and to take account of current best practice internationally.

In a major address at Croke Park in Dublin today, the Minister will ask the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment to review the exam. He wants the council to review international practice and examine the issue of overload and time for active learning.

The council has already proposed a revised Leaving Cert exam with a much greater emphasis on independent learning.

The Department of Education supports the move away from rote learning, but it has been slow to back the council’s plans for a remodelled Leaving Cert because of cost issues.