The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has welcomed today’s statement by the Minister for Education and Skills that he will invite the teacher unions to talks on changes to the Junior Cycle.
However, a union spokesperson said it was regrettable that, to date, despite attending a series of bilateral meetings earlier this year and participating in the Junior Cycle Working Group, key questions posed by TUI on standards, capacity and equity have not been satisfactorily answered. Even at this late stage, there remain more questions than answers and this is completely unacceptable.
TUI has continuously made plain its grave concerns about various aspects of the proposed reforms at Junior Cycle. Particular concerns relate to:
- The integrity and validity of proposed assessment methods
- The absence of an appropriate form of national certification of student attainment
- The demonstrated lack of capacity at school level to accommodate the proposed changes as a result of cuts imposed in a series of austerity budgets
- The probable adverse effects on smaller schools, as a consequence of exacerbating inequity in curricular provision
- The absence of the structures required to support equitable and effective implementation in the wake of the removal of thousands of middle management posts
- The inadequacy of schools’ infrastructure (including Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platforms and connectivity)
- The very significant increase in workload and administrative functions that would arise
- The inadequacy of the continuous professional development that is to be provided