It will undoubtedly cause hassle for a number of parents, but 73% of mums will still be supporting secondary teachers during their planned strike action tomorrow.

 

The Association of Secondary Teachers' Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) are taking to the streets for a second time over proposed changes to the Junior Cert.

 

Although this second strike will cause upset to schedules and working days for a third of all families with secondary school students, MummyPages research reveals that the majority of mums fully support the teachers’ cause.

 

Out of the 27% of mums who said they didn’t support the decision to strike, half were in support of the cause but wished strike action could have been averted.

 

Fallout occurred earlier this year when the Department of Education announced that the current Junior Cert programme would be phased out over the next eight years, and replaced with a school-based model of continuous assessment.

 

Under these new reforms, 40% of examination marks will be based on coursework, and 60% on a final written exam, which will be administered and corrected by the students' teachers. The only exceptions are English, Irish and Maths, which will be corrected externally for the first couple of years.

 

77% of mums agree that the Junior Cert curriculum should be reformed to include continuous assessment as well as exams, but the marking of final exams has become an issue of contention.

 

Teachers have highlighted concerns over the affect these changes will have on Junior cycle students, as teachers come under pressure from students’ parents over final marks. This is especially relevant in smaller rural schools where teachers may be a family friend or even a relative of the child whose Junior Cert mark they’re responsible for.

 

Commenting on the research Mum-in-Residence for MummyPages, Laura Haugh says:   “Most parents and teachers would argue that the best feature of the Irish examination system is the complete anonymity and fairness of the marking system, where nobody could be accused of influencing the grade obtained.”

 

One of the biggest issues for teachers is that the planned reform will remove fairness and equality from the exams. Liz Crummey from St. Raphaela’s Secondary School in Stillorgan says:  “The current Junior Cert curriculum might not be perfect but at least there is transparency in its operation.

 

“It wasn’t too long ago that brown envelopes were being passed between professional people to influence planning and zoning decisions for property; what is to say that the same couldn’t happen with the suggested reforms?”

 

“As a teacher and as a mother of a teenager who has had some difficulty during his school life, I am thankful that when he sat his Junior Cert he was just a number and that no personal influences by his teachers could come into play.

 

“Teenagers are difficult to parent and also to control in the classroom; if they have been disruptive in class throughout the year it would be hard for even the most professional teacher not to let that influence their marking, even on a subconscious level.” 

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