Sir, – Joe Humphreys ("Unions reject proposal to split junior cycle assessment in two") wonders whether teachers should have a veto over education reform? We are not looking for one.
We don’t want to correct our own pupils’ work for a final assessment. Whether state-backed or otherwise.
We are not against the entire new Junior Cert and have gone along with pretty much all recent initiatives. You can’t force workers to do work they have ethical issues over – no matter how you plead or threaten. Besides our pesky consciences, we have issues over resources.
We are presently failing kids in classrooms due to chronic under-funding in most educational areas.
Our students rarely see a modern computer. They can’t get proper access to guidance counsellors. They can’t get resource hours to overcome learning disabilities. They can’t get money for textbooks.
So what hope, then, that when they participate in the new junior cycle they will be get proper resources or marks that are open to question? – Yours, etc, BEN HAYES Booterstown, Co Dublin.