How do teachers in other countries assess students?

Teacher unions return to talks next Thursday in a bid to avert further strike action over the reform of the junior cycle.

Opposition has zoned in on the issue of school-based assessment, the idea that teachers would grade students on work they had done in the first three years of secondary school. Critically, these grades would go towards 40 per cent of the Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA), which is set to replace the Junior Cert in 2017.

International comparisons can be made – but with caveats. No two education systems are the same and while many countries have school-based assessment they manage it in different ways.

The UK is Ireland’s closest comparator. In Scotland, teachers carry out “internal assessments” at secondary level, and these are externally monitored to ensure fairness and consistency in marking.

In England, a similar system has operated, although the Conservative-led government now wants to put the emphasis back on terminal exams in the GCSE, the equivalent of the Junior Cert. This is opposed by teacher unions in the UK, which believe internal assessment provides a better guide to students’ ability.

Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg has noted that "internationally, it is more common that teachers are the ones that insist on more freedom and autonomy in assessing and grading their students rather than the other way round". This makes Ireland "unique globally".

However, he says, “choosing selectively, you can justify any position you like”. Finland has no junior cycle external exams and nor do most provinces in Canada. “Singapore and South Korea have – with devastating and socially harmful consequences: massive private tutoring, narrowing curriculum, and huge issues with children’s health.”

In the final analysis, he says Ireland should do what's best for the Irish system and not be too concerned about international trends. University of Limerick lecturer Dr Geraldine Mooney Simmie agrees.

While reformers point to Scandinavian countries as role models, she says they’re slower to acknowledge that, for example, in Norway the pupil-teacher ratio is typically half that in Ireland and “reforms . . . have been introduced with serious investment in the modernising of infrastructure in all schools”.

On a practical level, some educationalists believe it would make more sense to have gone with Ruairí Quinn’s plan of 100 per cent school-based assessment rather than 40 per cent assessment and 60 per cent exams. This might have decoupled the planned JCSA from the Leaving Cert.