Teachers trying to protect educational ‘standards and integrity’

Teachers are being put in an "invidious" position in order to implement unjust proposals on their students' education, according to educators protesting against Junior Certificate reforms across the country today.

Speaking outside Belvedere College in Dublin's north city, union members stressed that the Department of Education proposal to shift the onus of State examination assessment onto teachers was putting unfair pressure on an already overworked staff.

“We’re trying to protect Irish education standards and the integrity of the Junior Certificate examination system, which the Department of Education want to erode away the independence of,” said science teacher Stuart Wheeler.

“100 per cent of assessment of students by teachers is unjust towards the students, and puts teachers in an invidious position… This is three years’ worth of change they’ve tried to impose, the latest concession by the Minister is actually going back to the original proposal that Ruairí Quinn overturned,” said Mr Wheeler.

Apart from the ethical dilemma posed by teachers having to continuously mark their own students’ work- which is currently done externally through the Junior Cert exam system- Mr Wheeler says he is also unhappy at the lack of direction from the Department over what the new initiative might entail.

“We mark our own students’ work all the time, but for a State qualification it’s going to be more onerous. We haven’t been given guidelines about when it’s going to be implemented, how it’s going to start or how it’s going to be moderated- we just don’t know. There’s been a lack of consultation in those particular areas,” Mr Wheeler added.

Down the road in Larkin Community College, Declan Quinn says widescale industrial action is necessary to preserve the standards of education and assessment currently in place.

“This is the bridge we need to cross long-term because ultimately they want to introduce other reforms, and if we give way on the Junior Certificate there’ll be more expected of us,” said Mr Quinn, who is an art and design teacher at the college.

“Teachers have already shown flexibility, and we are implementing other systems in relation to continuous assessment- it’s not as if we haven’t shown flexibility up to now. But this represents more work in that regard, and it means that teachers need additional time to enable the students.

“If you concede on pay that’s one thing, but if you concede on conditions they’re eroded for good. Once you change that, it’s very difficult to row back.”