Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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193. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in view of the fact that both secondary school unions the TUI and ASTI are opposed to the introduction of the new junior certificate and that the joint managerial body has called on her to drop school based assessment for the terminal exam for a five-year period; if she will engage with the unions and the JMB, Joint Managerial Body, and issue a public response. [39572/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Since I have come into office I have met with parent, teacher and school management representatives and discussed Junior Cycle reform with all these groups. At my invitation, the teacher unions have outlined to me their concerns in relation to aspects of the proposed reforms. In doing so, the unions underlined teacher support for the reforms that will lead to better quality teaching and learning experiences and thence outcomes for students I am currently considering the concerns which were raised by teacher representatives, and what different forms of engagement might be considered to facilitate an overall agreement.

I look forward to meeting with the teaching unions again later this month, to further progress these discussions.

I am also happy to meet management bodies to discuss any concerns they may have.

As the Deputy will appreciate, out of respect for the process, I do not intend that engagement with stakeholders should be pre-empted in a public setting.