Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In phase two, it will be Irish, science and business studies. All subjects will start the new reformed curriculum from 2017. That will mean it will be 2020 before all subjects at junior certificate level will be examined under the new curriculum. That is a very long period of time during which there will be much change in schools and confusion in terms of exactly what the curriculum being provided is and of students being aware of what the qualification they will receive will be. If there had been more prior planning put into how this would be delivered, it could have been done within a shorter timeframe. At the outset, we could have had a clear pathway as to how we would go about doing this.

Although the Minister ran with and published the NCCA report and is grasping the challenge of reforming the junior certificate curriculum, the haste with which he made the announcement without engagement on how it would be delivered and on getting more agreement and co-operation from the teaching profession, will make it more difficult to deliver it within a reasonable timeframe and to ensure the people who will be absolutely key to delivering the curriculum working with him from the outset. A key concern, which has been expressed by teachers, in particular, parents and students is the fact there will not be external marking of the 60% examination students will have to take as part of their school certification.

If one looks at the experience in Britain, one will see that its government, department and even schools are saying that taking that approach has led, unfortunately, to there being an incentive for particular schools to inflate scores in marking examinations. There is a genuine concern about that with regard to the Irish education system as well. It is interesting to note that Britain is looking at the option of introducing state examinations and more state involvement in marking examinations. We must take note of the lessons there. We must also listen to the concern of our teachers, students and parents about that aspect of the marking and address it in the implementation plan in terms of how the final curriculum and structure will look.

Undoubtedly, changing the junior certificate curriculum is about trying to change the way students learn. It is about trying to move away from learning for the examinations to engaging students with the subject and with thinking on it by trying to remove the amount of rote learning. It is also about reducing the significance of the examination in the context of the learning process. However, the examination will continue to account for 60% of the marks. We must ensure that there is a consistent standard of assessment of students and how they are faring at junior certificate level across the country. If the first time there will be a full State examination across the different subjects will be in the final year, this is something we will have to assess and revisit.

I asked the Minister yesterday about the level of engagement there had been between him and the teachers' unions since the announcement had been made. He indicated that he planned to meet with them in the near future. Considering some of the responses from the teachers unions following the announcement, it would have been opportune and appropriate to have met with them before now. The president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI, Mr. Gerry Breslin, for example, said that ASTI members were appalled by the Minister's lack of consultation with classroom teachers prior to his announcement on junior cycle reform. In a letter to The Irish Timeson 19 October, Mr. Gerard Craughwell, president of the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, said that he wished to strongly refute the assertion that the Teachers Union of Ireland had signed off on the Minister's proposed changes to the junior cycle. That is not an ideal way to start off such a major reform. I urge the Minister to engage immediately with the teachers' unions to assess how he can get the teachers to work with him in ensuring that this reform will work properly. Consider the results of the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, reform initiative, which was the key reform undertaken since the Minister took office. We have yet to see delivery of that reform. There are lessons there in terms of the type of approach that is required to ensure that something works.

As the Minister knows, reform is not just about making the announcement, but about ensuring it is delivered in a way that achieves success. I am concerned that the timeframe the Minister has provided for the junior cycle reform puts its implementation well beyond this Government's term of office. By 2014, we will only see English kicking off under the new curriculum and the first examinations will not happen until 2017. That will be well past the Government's term and well outside the remit for which the Minister has control. That is unfortunate because it is important that the person who takes the initiative and sets the template should also have responsibility for delivering it in so far as possible. There are legitimate concerns, given the results we have seen with the SUSI initiative, that there will be a similar level of promises of reform not being matched by the delivery.

To conclude, we favour reforming the curriculum but I have outlined some of our key concerns and we will engage on them in forthcoming months. I ask the Minister to take them on board.

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