Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I am keen to record my support for the teachers' strike action tomorrow. Furthermore, I record my support for this Private Members' motion. In supporting the motion, I use the term "junior cycle change" rather than "junior cycle reform", because reform infers upgrading and improvement. However, I believe the proposed changes, far from improving second level education will be detrimental to it.

It is important to recall where these proposals and changes came from initially. They came from the last Fianna Fáil Green Party Government as part of austerity or cost-cutting measures. There is no doubt that successive budgets from this Government and the previous Government have cut vast resources out of education. Schools and teachers are now at breaking point in this regard. Indeed, there was a further cut of 1% this year.

Second level schools in Ireland are all locally based and rightly so. A major strength of the set-up is the closeness of teachers to the community. I believe that having teachers assess their own students cannot but damage the relationship between teachers and students, teachers and schools and teachers and the community. Moreover, it will undermine confidence in second level qualifications generally and, as a result, it will have a detrimental effect on students, particularly students from disadvantaged schools. On this basis I call on the Minister to defer the implementation of these changes until there is agreement with the teachers.

See this speech in context