Sir, - In these scandalous times, Mr Sean Lydon's castigation of the NCCA for promoting teacher conducted continuous assessment might seem all too plausible (February 2nd). But it would be a mistake to allow Mr Lydon's justified rant against political corruption to shape our thinking on the future of educational assessment.
In this debate, there are two extreme positions. Mr Lydon and others apparently believe that Irish society is so corrupt and its teachers so unprofessional and spineless that to permit them to be involved in the assessment of their students for places at college would be anathema. At the other extreme are these who would abandon the Leaving Certificate and replace it entirely with non-examination based assessment. Neither position is particularly helpful.
Assessment is a crude activity and the limitations of alternative methods of assessment are well understood. Many of the shortcomings of examination-based assessment are shared by non-examination-based assessment. That is why educationalists favour varied and broadly-based assessment methods over narrowly-based ones.
The third-level sector in Ireland operates entirely using teacher-conducted assessment. The system is rigorous and has the confidence of the local and international communities. This is achieved through the exercise of professional responsibility, together with safeguards such as anonymous grading, double-blind grading, external examination and peer review. Most important of all, the ultimate grade award is left to a court of examiners comprising all teachers and the external examiners. These are all features that can be easily replicated in secondary schools throughout the country.
However, I do not advance my faith in teacher-conducted assessment as ammunition for the attack on the Leaving Certificate. The high standing of the Leaving Cert is a function of our confidence in it gained over long and intimate experience of it. It will take time for teacher-conducted assessment to achieve that level of recognition and acceptability. But, innovate we must. The evidence is overwhelming that the more varied and broadly-based the assessment methods the better.
The right direction must be to begin teacher/school-conducted assessment as soon as possible. The weighing attached to it in different decision contexts is a detail to be sorted out further down the road. We should remember, however, that no form of teacher conducted assessment envisages Miss Trunchbull sitting at the top of her class determining how she feels about Matilda. This is the kind of fantasy that will be promoted by those who are against it. It would be nice to hear what secondary schoolteachers, as distinct from their professional unions, have to say on this matter. After all, is not assessment a part of the core curriculum studied by every professional accredited teacher? - Yours, etc., Gerald McHugh,
School of Business, Trinity College, Dublin 1.