TEACHERS’ UNIONS HAVE raised concerns over the proposed implementation of the revamped junior cycle in schools.

The first meeting between the Department of Education and the bodies tasked with the implementation of the Junior Cycle Student Award, which will replace the Junior Cert from September.

English will change curriculum from then, but only in schools that wish to take on the new programme. Science will change over in 2015 and the whole cycle will have been revamped by 2022.

Speaking after the meeting, the Education Minister Ruairí Quinn said that students were the focus of negotiations.

“The main focus of all of our deliberations has to be on our young people. We are reforming junior cycle in order to allow them to achieve their full potential.

“I believe the JCSA will do just that and I am confident that alongside our teachers, managers and parents we can roll-out the new JCSA in a careful and considered way.”

Unions

His enthusiasm was not shared by teachers unions, however.

ASTI General Secretary Pat King said the union had raised concerns with the minister.

“Both ASTI and TUI had outlined their significant concerns over the proposed changes, including the threat to the standards and objectivity of exams at Junior Cycle level, the capacity of schools to implement the new Junior Cycle programme in the wake of a litany of cutbacks, and the potential of the programme to exacerbate inequalities between schools.”

He was echoed by TUI General Secretary John MacGabhann who said that a number of issues around the programme were still unanswered.

“Key questions on standards, capacity and equity which we have repeatedly posed were not satisfactorily answered and the level of detail required on a number of crucial matters was not provided.”

Read: First it was ‘The Inter’, then it was the Junior Cert… now it’s got a new name…