Dáil debates

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

State Examinations Reviews

2:25 pm

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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102. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of times and dates on which he has personally engaged in meetings with the teaching partners to discuss junior certificate reform proposals since becoming Minister; the status of progress on implementing the junior certificate reform programme; if he will commit to independent assessment of the new junior cycle student award as recommended by the National Council on Curriculum and Assessment working group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9362/14]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Before I speak on this question I want to register my disbelief at the fact that we were not able to get very specific numbers and answers to what I would regard as straightforward questions in response to my first oral question. On this question, I ask the Minister the number of times and dates on which he has personally engaged in meetings with the teaching partners to discuss junior certificate reform proposals since becoming Minister, the status of progress on implementing the junior certificate reform programme, if he will commit to independent assessment of the new junior certificate student awards as recommended by the NCCA working group, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Department, in consultation with me, established an education partners consultative group to provide all the education stakeholders with a formal medium for assisting in the planning of the phased implementation of the new junior cycle. This group first met on Thursday, 27 September 2012. Subsequent meetings were held on the day of the framework launch on 4 October 2012 and on 28 November of that year, on 22 January 2013, on 26 February 2013, on 26 March 2013 and on 26 June 2013. In addition, bilateral meetings have been held between union representatives and senior departmental officials since the autumn of 2013.

The first meeting of the national working group on junior cycle reform took place on Friday, 17 January 2014. Three subgroups have been established to address continuing professional development, assessment and school resources. There was a meeting of the subgroup on resources on 24 January 2014, and further meetings of the subgroups on assessment and on CPD were held on 30 January 2014. Findings from the subgroups were reported back to the national working group on 7 February. Last Friday the CPD subgroup met for a second time. The other two subgroups will meet on Monday, 3 March, with the working group meeting on 7 March. During the entire period in question, there were also regular meetings of stakeholders through the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment structures, including the junior cycle board and the council.

I personally attended the following seven meetings with TUI representatives: a deputation from the TUI on 8 December 2011; a deputation from the TUI on 2 April 2012; the TUI annual conference on 11 April 2012; Gerry Craughwell, president of the TUI, on 3 December 2012; John McGabhann, general secretary of the TUI, and Gerry Craughwell, president, on 31 January 2013; John McGabhann, general secretary, Gerry Craughwell, president, Gerry Quinn, vice president, and Annette Dolan, deputy general secretary, on 21 March 2013; and at the TUI annual congress on 3 April 2013 in the Clayton Hotel in Galway.

In addition, I personally attended the following five meetings with ASTI representatives: a deputation from the ASTI on 2 April 2012; the ASTI annual conference on 10 April; Gerry Breslin, president of the ASTI, on 12 December 2012; Pat King, general secretary, Gerry Breslin, president, Diarmuid de Paor, deputy general secretary, and Sally Maguire, vice president, on 21 March; and the ASTI conference on 2 April 2013. I also met the TUI and the ASTI representatives at the meeting that was held on the morning of the junior cycle framework launch.

I have been fully briefed on the interactions between officials and other education stakeholders in relation to planning for the introduction of the framework for the junior cycle. The pace of change of the proposed introduction of the new cycle has been slowed. Next September, junior cycle English will be implemented, followed by science in 2015 and Irish and business studies in 2016.

I went beyond the original assessment proposals of the NCCA. Unless assessment changes, nothing else will. To address concerns highlighted by the partners, I have agreed to look at external supports for moderation of school-based assessment. I have asked that a report be provided to me by mid-May on the findings of the working group.

2:35 pm

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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My question specifically asked the number of occasions on which the Minister has engaged with the teaching partners specifically on the issue of junior cycle reform. Junior cycle reform is something which, by and large, my party very much welcomes and had been involved with in the preparation for and the establishment of the working group. However, it is also something to which the Minister made changes after he came to office. At the ASTI teacher conference last year, he described it as a personal political project. That is why I specifically asked him for the occasions on which he met with those concerned to specifically discuss this personal political project of junior cycle reform.

As the Minister knows, we are facing the prospect next month of the teachers holding lunchtime protests at school gates because of the way he has handled this. I believe the Minister has dealt with this in a very offhand manner and he has not engaged with the teachers in the way he needed to for something as important as junior cycle reform. The NCCA working group noted that:

In countries such as Australia, Canada and Scotland, assessment for qualification includes an externally moderated school-based element. Such moderation provides assurance to all that where school-based assessment is used, there is consistency of standard across schools.
The Minister changed that. I would ask on what advice he changed it and whether, in the process of doing so he consulted or engaged with those who are going to have to deliver it.

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his supplementary question. The reply I have given clearly indicates to the House that I have probably met the two teacher unions in the second level sector, which are just two of the three unions involved in the education system and two of a large number of other education stakeholders, on numerous occasions. On every occasion, the future of the junior cycle was a point of discussion.

The only thing I have changed is the method of assessment, based on the recommendations internally within my own Department. I did not wake up one morning and say we were going to do this on our own. It was done for a variety of reasons, which I am happy to discuss, although time does not permit me to do it here. However, I can assure the Deputy that the introduction of English next September for first year students will culminate in a new exam that will be worth 60% of the total marks they get for English in June of 2017, after the next general election, when the Deputy may very well be answering this question himself. It will be an exam in English that has been set by the State Examinations Commission and it will be assessed and moderated by the State Examinations Commission.

If we went any slower, there would be no tangible movement. We are moving as slowly as we reasonably can to address the legitimate and understandable fears of change which some, but not all, of the teachers have.

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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It is not necessarily about moving slowly, given we would like to see reform progress. It is about moving together. My key complaint and problem with the way the Minister has handled this is that the movement has not been together. Progress and reform is to be done in partnership, not by directive.

On the two occasions when the timeframe was set for junior cycle reform to roll out, it was set by the Minister and announced in such a way that the media heard it before the education partners did. Then, before the working groups were set up last autumn, a new timeframe was put in place. How was that done? Was it done after consultation with the partners on this important education reform, one the Minister described as a personal political project? No. Once again, when it had become clear that the way and the pace at which it was to be rolled out were becoming a problem, instead of engaging and then reassessing how it would be rolled out, the Minister once again unilaterally set out a new timeframe. He then set up subgroups and working groups, which he was not part of, and left his Department to it. That is why we are now facing into a situation where the teachers are commencing industrial action and protest action at lunchtimes next month.

The question specifically refers to the independent assessment and verification of exams. Will the Minister open his door to engaging with others who are involved in this process and to address the issues they feel are important, such as independent assessment and resources?

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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All of the education partners in the junior cycle, many people outside it and many Deputies in this House have welcomed the proposed changes, including the system of moderation.

The only two who have not welcomed it and are opposed to it as far as we can see are two teachers' unions. Deputy McConalogue keeps referring to the need for consultation. I believe in consultation but at the end of the day, politicians make decisions. Sadly, for the past 25 years, there has been no reform of the junior cycle because some people regard and spell consultation as "negotiation". It is not the same. There will be plenty of consultation but at the end of the day, politicians on this side of the House make decisions and are accountable for them. I am happy to be accountable for the decisions I have made following the professional advice I have received.