The new system will start in 2014 and will prioritise learning and creativity over spoonfeeding. Here’s how it will work

Q What’s wrong with the old Junior Cert and why the rush to change it?

For a 21-year-old, it’s not looking good. The Junior Cert programme was devised in an era before mobile phones and the internet. The old-fashioned exam rewards passive learning and the attitude that “teacher will get me through this”, rather than the student engaging with learning. Research published by the ESRI says that the current system is particularly ill-suited to boys. Teachers agree that many adolescent boys start to disengage at this point in the schooling system.

And the flaws are showing. The performance of Ireland’s 15-year-olds in the OECD rankings has slipped alarmingly, down from fifth to 19th in literacy. Close to a quarter of 15-year-old are functionally illiterate according to the OECD. The results were also bleak in maths and science, where Irish teenagers were ranked as average and below average.

Almost everyone agrees that reform is necessary. Tweaking the subjects won’t work, they say – the terminal exam is calling the tune and has to be changed.

Q What’s different about the new system?

Instead of being a dry run for the Leaving, as the Junior Cert is currently regarded, the new programme will flow more smoothly from primary school, where a new, more innovative curriculum has been in place for more than a decade. The idea is to create better learners, more able, more literate and numerate and more confident to take on the Leaving Cert cycle. They will have “learned how to learn” as opposed to being spoonfed through a process, say designers of the new Junior cycle. As part of the new framework, there will be 24 “statements of learning” described. Priority will be given to literacy and numeracy. Six “key skills for learning and living in the 21st century”, including communication and creativity, will be embedded in every subject.

Q What changes are coming?

The curriculum will comprise subjects as it does now. There will only be three core subjects, however: Irish, English and maths. Students may take as many subjects as they like, but will only be examined in eight.

There will also be short courses, which schools may select. These will be developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), but schools will also have the option to design their own courses, according to an NCCA template. So, for example, if a school is coastal it might consider a short course on the fishing industry or marine science.

Q How will it be assessed?

This is set to change significantly. Instead of one big terminal exam at the end of the third year, marks will now be awarded for a mixture of project work and exams, at a ratio of 40 to 60 per cent.

Students will develop a portfolio of work over the course of the programme that will be assessed by teachers instead of an external body.

Q Any role for technology?

It is envisaged that technology will play a starring role. The NCCA has announced that students will produce digital portfolios, records of which will be maintained through the use of cloud computing. “Big players in ICT” have come on board with offers of tangible assistance, say NCCA insiders.

Use of the internet will draw parents into the process, says the NCCA.

Schools will make programmes available to parents, and these will include sections for parents and for students to see the learning outcomes associated with particular courses and subjects.

Q When will it kick in?

The new system will start in 2014. If you have a child currently in fourth class or lower, he or she will be undertaking the new Junior Cert.

Q Will teachers be able to handle it?

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn insists that literacy and numeracy will have to be embedded in all subjects.

Teachers on the ground say that this represents a big jump for teachers of many subjects, such as woodwork or art, who have never considered literacy development as part of their job description. “A huge programme of awareness-raising is required,” one teacher said.

There was a proposal on the table to reorder subjects into cross-disciplinary programmes (history and geography might be subsumed into a general “social studies” class, for example). Teachers will be relieved to note that the old subject specialisms still pertain, although syllabuses will be reviewed.

A massive programme of professional development will be required to make it work.

Hard copies of the NCCA document describing the new framework are being delivered to schools nationwide this week. It will cause anxiety for teachers looking for details on how to make it happen. According to those familiar with it, this is a theoretical document rather than a blueprint for classroom practice. There’s more to come.

Q Will the unions allow it?

Interestingly, many union reps are still referring to it as the “proposed new system”, rather than the new system. Teaching unions have been involved in consultations around this reform, and are represented on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The process has taken two years to complete and agreement has been reached with all the stakeholders. In principle, therefore, unions have already given the new programme their seal of approval.

However, both the TUI and ASTI have red-line issues that could hamper progress. For the TUI, most of whose members work in State schools, the problem is resourcing. They say that with pupil-teacher ratios on the rise there are fewer teachers in schools to implement and manage the new system. The ASTI has always been opposed to the assessment of pupils by their own teachers. They say that if teachers are grading their own students for certification purposes, the system could lose credibility in the public mind. As one teacher put it, “if the powers that be don’t get the assessment element right the system will fall into disrepute and the whole thing will come crashing down”.

Overall, however, the unions claim to be pro-reform and supportive of the NCCA’s new framework.

Q Will certain subjects become extinct?

In the run-up to the published programme, there was unease among teachers of minority subjects. The reduction of examinable subjects from 12 or more to eight, and the suggestion that some subjects may be amalgamated, left many teachers wondering if their specialism would survive. In the event, all schools are still free to deliver any and all subjects that the students want, but only eight will be examinable at the end of the process.

A minimum of 200 hours of teaching time is required for each examinable subject, down from 240 hours in the current programme, leaving schools more time for other subjects and for short courses to broaden the curriculum as they see fit.

Q Is this just more Transition Year?

Some critics of the new programme are claiming that this is just more TY. With its emphasis on discovery learning, active learning, soft-skills development and autonomy for schools it certainly bears a resemblance.

However, there’s a big difference. TY has no centralised curriculum and no terminal exam. Schools have a massive amount of flexibility in the TY curriculum. The new Junior Cert programme is circumscribed, offering schools some room for creativity in delivery, but still centrally prescribed.

Q What does it mean for the Leaving Cert?

Advocates of the programme say that it has been designed to make students more effective learners, better-equipped to take on the high-stakes Leaving Cert exam. Through the learning objectives in the new system, they argue, students will learn to think critically, manage information and will be more literate and numerate – obvious advantages for the exam student. Meanwhile, subjects for Leaving Cert are gradually progressing, subject by subject, to include more project and portfolio work and more continuous assessment to close the gap.

Sceptics argue that the gap will be too wide. “Students don’t know that the Junior Cert exam doesn’t matter, it keeps their noses down and prepares them for the real thing,” says one. “If we take that motivator away and give them the message that they can develop, enjoy learning and work in teams for three years, and for another year in Transition year, then how are we going to get them motivated for the Leaving Cert if, at 16 years old, it’s the first high-stakes exam they’ve encountered in their schooling? Ultimately only 40 per cent of them can get a place in college, and somewhere along the line they have to be examined in a standardised way to allocate those places.”

Q What will it be called?

Ruairí Quinn has called on the Union of Secondary Students to come up with a title for the new programme. As products of the old system, will they be creative enough for the challenge?