Any move to abolish the Junior Certificate is dangerous and daft. Students and parents need an exam which will concentrate the mind, argues ' The Irish Times' guidance expert

IS IT TIME TO GET RID OF THE JUNIOR CERTIFICATE?

Minister for Education and Science Batt O’Keeffe has indicated that he is seriously considering major changes to the Junior Certificate. This has given rise to unease on the part of teachers currently preparing more than 150,000 pupils in the first three years of the junior cycle for their Junior Certificate.

It has also left many parents confused when they are confronted by their children with statements such as: “Why should I have to forgo my favourite TV programme to go up to my room to study when the Minister has announced that the Junior Certificate is going to be abolished?”

WHAT IS THE MINISTER TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

O’Keeffe has not announced the abolition of the Junior Certificate, and all students who are currently studying for it will sit the exam in June 2010, 2011 and 2012.

He has asked an advisory group (the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment – NCCA) to review the whole junior cycle experience and examine whether it should be updated to meet the changing educational needs of our young people.

DO TEACHERS, PARENTS AND STUDENTS VALUE EDUCATION OR EXAMINATION RESULTS?

Big question. As a teacher for more than 30 years, it seems clear to me that it is the Junior Certificate exam itself that dominates everything else.

When, as a young teacher, I taught the business studies and the pre-examination religious education programmes, I occupied two entirely different worlds.

My business class students were focused on mastering the skills of book-keeping and understanding the basic principles of the business world. An hour later, working with the same group of students in religion class, I spent a large portion of the class coaxing students to engage in the deepest questions of existence.

During my 20 years of teaching those two Junior Certificate subjects, I found huge resistance from students to engage in any serious work and reflection on these profound topics, because it was not examined in the Inter Cert, as the Junior Cert was then called.

Students have always been focused on “the exam” and to a lesser extent in the schools’ own in-house exams.

There are important discussions underway about what we want students to learn in the exam and the form of assessment which students see as relevant and important.

This is the harsh reality of every teacher’s experience in the classroom. When I express scepticism about doing away with a national exam such as the Junior Cert, I am reflecting the reality of what students and their parents value. How many parents, for instance, ever visit a non-examination subject teacher during a parent-teacher meeting?

If we want our children to learn different things during their first three years in second-level education, we must find a way to evaluate that learning in a way that has credibility with students and their parents.

If we do not, how will teachers get students to engage at a meaningful level with the often complex and difficult material and concepts involved in many disciplines?

HOW DOES THE JUNIOR CERT RATE?

In the past few years we have seen the development of a 10-stage national qualification structure by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland. The NQAI has given the Junior Certificate a level three qualification.

So what personal and practical skills and knowledge should a student have to be awarded a level three award? Is it reflected in the knowledge, skill and competencies that a typical student who has just completed the Junior Cert possesses? Do we need to develop a detailed framework of such skills that can be integrated into a revised Junior Cert?

If we do, can it be assessed in a way, that will continue to have credibility with students and parents, and be accepted by teachers?

Will teachers and parents in the future be encouraging their sons and daughters to study hard so that they can achieve a level three award, as opposed to securing a Junior Certificate?

CATCHING UP WITH PRIMARY SCHOOLS

For more than 10 years now, students and teachers have experienced the exciting new primary curriculum.

Our second-level schools are still rooted in more traditional learning.

Given that many students disengage as they progress through second-level education and drop out of school, can we structure the educational experience at Junior Certificate level in a way that captures some of the advances that the new programme at primary level has achieved? And can we do this while allowing pupils to move on from the Junior Cert to the Leaving Certificate and third level?

These are the issues that the review of the Junior Certificate, currently underway, is going to have to consider.

DON’T THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER

The current Junior Certificate programme is not perfect, but it does provide a solid foundation for 12- to 15-year-old students at second level. Great care must be taken before radical surgery is completed. My own view is that teachers and parents will resist any attempt to devalue the Junior Cert.