Written answers

Thursday, 9 February 2017

Department of Education and Skills

State Examinations

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures he plans to take to ensure that junior certificate students do not suffer as a result of ongoing industrial action; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6462/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The State Examinations Commission is responsible for the administration of the Final Examinations that form part of the assessment procedures for Junior Cycle. The SEC has provided reassurance in relation to concerns that some Junior Cycle students may not have opportunities to complete all elements of the SEC’s Junior Cycle Final Examination, in English, in 2017. The Examination comprises an Assessment Task, undertaken in schools, which is worth 10% of the available marks and a Final Examination, in June 2017, representing 90% of the marks. Both elements are marked externally by the SEC.

Post-primary schools were advised in December 2016 of a second window for the completion by third year students of Junior Cycle English of the second Classroom Based Assessment (CBA) and Assessment Task. The new window for the Assessment Task, which forms part of the Final Examination and which is marked by the SEC, will be in the week beginning 24 April.

The SEC will provide guidance for the completion of the Assessment Task to schools. The SEC can assure parents and students that its guidance to schools will make clear that all their students will have an opportunity to undertake the Assessment Task, and in this way to complete all elements that are marked by the SEC within the Junior Cycle Final Examination.

I understand that the  guidance to be provided by the SEC to schools closer to the time of this second window will make clear that completion of the Assessment Task in English involves candidates engaging with stimulus material and questions (provided by the NCCA, having been developed in conjunction with the SEC), and then completing a booklet provided by the SEC within the set timeframe. The NCCA and SEC materials are focused on candidates referring to their collection of texts, which they have undertaken as part of the reading strand over the period of their study of the Junior Cycle English subject specification and as part of the second CBA.

The class teachers' role in relation to the completion of the Assessment Task is to engage with their students in relation to the NCCA stimulus material and questions, and then to supervise the class in completing the SEC-provided booklet. Class teachers have no role in marking this work.

The completed Assessment Task booklets are then securely stored by schools for return to the SEC for marking. Schools will be required to complete an undertaking to authenticate that the completed Assessment Tasks are the candidates own work and have been completed in accordance with the NCCA and SEC guidelines.

These arrangements are in line with those applying in schools for the conduct of externally assessed coursework in a range of subjects across both Junior and Senior Cycle. These longstanding arrangements provide for school supervision and authentication of the completion of work for external assessment by the SEC.

I welcome the reassurance provided by the State Examinations Commission on this issue, and I am satisfied that all students will have the opportunity to complete the Assessment Task and Final Examination.

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