PRESS PASS ENTRY- CATEGORY: ANALYSIS/OPINION OF
EDUCATIONAL REFORM
STEPHANIE SMITH,
COLAISTE NA SCEILGE,
CAHIRCIVEEN,
CO KERRY.
READING, ‘RITING AND REFORM
Stephanie Smith
Come September 2014 a new
Junior Certificate cycle will
commence. This new cycle will
involve 40% of the marks awarded
coming from course work at school
and the other 60% coming from an
exam. This will dramatically affect
work in the classrooms and how
students learn. Having recently sat
the Junior Certificate, I
understand why this is a good idea.
For one thing it will reduce the
amount of disruption in a
classroom, with the new emphasis
on coursework students will be
eager to scoop up some extra
points. This will have the knock on
effect of making them work
harder in class, which in turn will
make them do better in the actual
exam.
The pressure of having your
certificate on one day is
incredible; there are so many
variables that could affect your
performance like lack of sleep and
illness. Even if everything goes
perfectly the score is still
unreliable, the person who gets an
A may have memorized all the
necessary elements but have no
ability to apply it, also known as
‘learning to the exam’ syndrome.
By having some course work to
refer to, we are given a more
accurate account of a student’s
abilities. However, it could also
present some problems, especially
for getting the work corrected.
Suppose a student was afraid that
a certain teacher disliked them
and therefore would lower their
grade. In order for work to be
corrected without any mishaps it
would be preferable for students
to be given an examination number
like in the actual exam, to be used
instead of the student’s name.
The new cycle will allow students
to take up more courses, students
may substitute two short courses
for one long course, with a
maximum of four short courses.
This will allow students to try new
and interesting subjects that may
help them later on in life such as
Chinese or computer coding.
This new method of evaluation will
keep students on their toes, which
is good because I find there is a
lull in the alacrity of students in
second year. I believe the cause of
this is that when you first start
you try your best but are slowly
worn down, second year becomes
boring and uneventful because
nothing pushes students to work,
then third year comes along and
gives students a rude awakening. A
crude but effective wake up call,
that arrives a little late for some.
The way we learnt things in the
Junior Certificate cycle was very
limited, I remember on numerous
occasions asking questions on a
subject out of interest and being
told not to worry because it
wouldn’t appear on the paper.
That’s fine if you don’t plan on
using the subject in your future, in
which case you probably shouldn’t
be doing it at all unless you’re into
learning for its own sake (which
isn’t usually the case for most
students). For people who do want
to use it in the future though, it is
very frustrating. This new system
should be able to facilitate
learning a lot better in this area,
with this new flexibility of short
and long courses learning will be
more interesting than ever before.
One of the aims of this new cycle
is to equip students with key skills,
these skills are:
Literacy
Numeracy
Communication
Creativity
Self Management
Self Care
Teamwork
Managing Information and Thinking
There are high hopes that these
skills will be learnt and
incorporated in everyday school
life and used later on in adulthood.
Classes in English, Irish and
Mathematics will be designed to
have 240 hours of engagement
from students over the course of
the full three years. All other
subjects will be designed for 200
hours except short courses which
as the title suggests are only half
as long. Schools are to be
encouraged to develop their own
short courses that correspond to
their local area. A fantastic idea if
you asked me, what better way to
learn something than to see it in
action? Also having courses in local
crafts has more potential for
perking a student’s interest.
The plan has already been put in
action to start phasing out the
original Junior Cert, it is time to
say good bye to our not-so-beloved
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Junior Certificate exams and
usher forth a new age of more
flexible learning. So students of
the future, put on your sunglasses
because the future is looking
bright!