Implementation of Junior Cycle Framework – DES Statement 17 January 2014
Reforming Junior Cycle Education (ETBI News article)
Former Minister for Education and Skills, Ms Mary Coughlan, launched a consultation process around the whole matter of reforming the Junior Certificate examination and the first three years of the second level education.
The NCCA has published a discussion paper Innovation and Identity: Ideas for a new Junior Cycle and this will form the basis for the consultation process. To access a copy of the discussion paper click here and for a summary of the paper click here.
A presentation based on the discussion paper is available here.
In the discussion paper, the NCCA documents research based concerns about the extent to which Junior Cycle education currently meets the needs of young people (curriculum overload, insufficient time for students to engage with the curriculum and teachers, overly prescriptive syllabi, lack of connection between primary and second-level curriculum, excessive emphasis on the Junior Certificate examination, etc…..) together with a range of possible options about how the Junior Cycle might develop in the future.
It is now some 20 years since the Junior Certificate replaced the old Intermediate Certificate and, while the Junior Certificate did facilitate significant reform, it failed, for a variety of reasons, to deliver on much of what was envisaged at the time. Of course, in the intervening period, Irish society has changed dramatically and we now live in a knowledge society that has emerged as a consequence of technological developments that, just two decades ago, were unimaginable.
ETBI put in place a process to enable the ETBI family to contribute, in a structured way, towards this very important consultation process.
A copy of the ETBI (then known as IVEA) submission to the NCCA may be accessed here.
Formative Assessment / Assessment for Learning – An accessible Guide