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

I too have grave concerns about the way the Minister is reforming the junior certificate. There is a need for an impartial examination which can have a benefit in ensuring standards throughout the country. That is crucial. As Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan pointed out, teachers routinely correct examinations. In terms of whether the junior certificate is a high stakes examination anymore, it is important we do not set it as one or encourage students to prioritise it in terms of being of major importance in the context of the examination results. However, it is crucial in terms of ensuring standards and giving students a fair benchmark of their progression. My concern is that if we remove it, how do we ensure uniform standards? If the school is doing the correcting, how do we ensure there are not real differences between how schools correct the examinations? There will always be an incentive for schools to mark examinations in a certain way.

Britain is moving away from this and is looking at more standard examinations at junior certificate level. Junior certificate reform is welcome but there are serious concerns about that aspect of it.

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