Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and to evaluate our position with regard to the junior cycle examinations. It is 26 years since the present system was introduced and the changes in our society in that time have been vast. I came into the House around that time and there is no comparison between our society then and now. Enormous changes have taken place in our economy and particularly in opportunities for accessing data. Information is available at the touch of a button now. One does not need rote learning to obtain information. I remember using the Encyclopaedia Britannicaat school, which had an updated volume every year.

I have not seen a copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanicafor years because it has been made obsolete by modern technology.

Students need quality learning. Assessing information and subjects is one thing, and it is accepted that some degree of assessment will take place, but how does one assess the issues that assist young persons to deal with society in adulthood? How does one assess entrepreneurship, which is very important, and develop the qualities required to become an entrepreneur? How does one prepare a student for the pressures society imposes on young people and families? Society has changed dramatically since the current system was introduced.

In addition to giving students facts, education should prepare them for life which has become vastly different for this generation as compared to previous generations. Change is required in the assessment process in the junior cycle. Other issues must be included in the junior certificate and students must be involved and taught to use their critical faculties. The purpose of the new junior cycle is to make fundamental changes to learning and teaching in response to modern requirements and equip young people to deal with a rapidly changing society.

The new proposals will change the dynamic of the classroom. This cannot be done by external assessment only. The teaching profession can respond to the needs of classes and evaluate them on the basis of where the students are, rather than by comparing them with students from different schools. The new approach will result in a greater level of objectivity in examining the development of individual students and recognise the skills that cannot be assessed through an examination process.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, in collaboration with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, consulted Dáil na nÓg on the reform of the junior cycle. It was interesting to note the response of the young people who make up Dáil na nÓg. It concluded that the majority of young people considered the junior curriculum to be too focused on examinations and the junior certificate examination to be a negative form of assessment which caused stress and was essentially a memory test.

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