Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

136. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the first meeting of the working group on junior certificate reform will take place; the number of hours in-service training which will be provided to each English teacher in advance of the commencement of the new curriculum in September 2014; the way he proposes to address the concerns of teachers regarding the reforms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2344/14]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Minister will be aware, this question was tabled last week. Since then, matters have moved on significantly. The two teacher unions have decided to ballot on non-co-operation with junior certificate reforms. It is the Minister's failure to engage properly with them over the past year and a half that has led to that situation, and I ask for his response to my question.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question and note his deep interest in this subject matter.

The first meeting of the national working group on junior cycle reform took place on Friday last, 17 January. I would have loved it to take place on the last Friday in June of last year but, unfortunately, one of the unions involved found itself on the other side of the Haddington Road negotiations and we were not in a position to hold that meeting on the last Friday in June. It is expected that there will be meetings of the group every three to four weeks over the next few months and thereafter while the new junior cycle is being phased in. Three sub-groups have been established to address continual professional development, CPD, assessment and school resources.

This new working group will be a forum where the concerns of the partners, not only the teachers' unions but including the teachers, can be heard. Through dialogue, the concerns raised can be addressed so as to enable the successful implementation of the junior cycle to proceed over the next number of years.

The number of days of in-service training that needs to be provided to each English teacher during the phased roll-out of the curriculum was to be three. An additional 1.5 days has now been provided for English teachers, raising the total to 4.5 in all. The in-service training is being rolled out on a phased basis to ensure that it is relevant to teachers in their work in adapting to the new curriculum.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The key issue here has been the way the Minister has handled these reforms from the outset. With change in any organisation, whether private or public, the reforms must be done in partnership, not in conflict. I note the way the Minister went about this from the first day he announced the new junior certificate reform. He announced it without consultation and, indeed, he deviated from the recommendation given to him by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The Minister made his own call on it and he did it without consultation. He stated that one could go along with it and that was the way it was going. I later heard him describe the decision not to do common assessment under the State Examination Commission and to have teachers correct the junior certificate instead as a personal political project. That is not what reform is supposed to be about. It is little wonder the Minister finds himself in a situation, a little more than six months before this reform is due to kick in in classrooms, in which the two main teaching unions of professionals who are supposed to deliver this curriculum have stated they will not co-operate with him. The Minister lost their faith a long time ago. We now need mediation so that we can get junior certificate reform up and running in a spirit of partnership, not on a bad footing, for what should be one of the most significant changes to the second-level education system in many years.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has been trying for the past 25 years to reform a curriculum which, by general consensus amongst the educationalists, including many teachers, is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. One of the blockages to implementing the desired reform was the cost and complexities associated with a new form of assessment for a State examination. It was a major cost factor. I took the decision, on the advice of officials in the Department and others, that in this day and age we do not need a State examination for young people at the age of 15 because we do not want them to leave school at the age of 15. Once upon a time we had the primary school certificate, which was a State examination for 12 year olds - and in some cases 11 year olds - and that was the only State certificate they were ever going to get in the education system because, sadly, many of them did leave school. It was abolished in 1967 and primary schools have flourished ever since.

The decision to change the nature of the junior certificate examination from a State examination to an in-house examination that would roll on to the leaving certificate was central to enabling us to move to introduce the desired reforms, which have been welcomed by the parents, management bodies and principals.

Do the teachers have concerns? Yes, they do. Are they right to have concerns?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The parents are concerned as well.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No, they are not. They welcome the changes.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not been listening to them.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am prepared to continue to talk with teachers.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not talked to them.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

He has not.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is not the word on the ground.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We will continue to talk. It is not six months but nine months away to next September when first year students will come to do the new curriculum in English and English alone. In June 2017 they will do a paper that will account for 60% of their marks, a paper that will be set by the State Examinations Commission and that will be marked by the State examinations examiners, and will roll on slowly from that point. This is measured, steady progress but in a radical direction. I am proud to say that it is a political project that is overdue and I am happy to be associated with it.