Towards a Better Future

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Chapter Three: Curriculum are very welcome. They focus on the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will be required by our young people in the future as well as providing exciting and creative new opportunities for students and teachers. In June 2016, Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, confirmed that the implementation plan agreed in May 2015 would go ahead as planned, and that the revised specification for English (the first subject to be introduced) would be examined in 2017. In keeping with NCCA policy, the new specification, available on www.curriculumonline.ie, is much less detailed than previous syllabi. It is less than 20 pages long, including an introduction, rationale, and aims of the subject. An overview of the course covers just three pages, and ‘Expectations for Students’ (i.e. learning outcomes) take up four pages. Short assessment guidelines are also provided. A list of suggested texts is provided in a separate document. However, as promised in the 2015 DES Framework document, additional support material and resources are available on the JCT and DES websites and on www.curriculumonline.ie. In April 2016, the state Examination Commission issued sample examination papers for the 2017 examination (www.examinations.ie), which will no doubt be carefully studied by teachers and pupils alike. One small criticism – it is difficult when navigating the various websites to find out exactly what curriculum and assessment changes are being introduced at Junior Cycle and how they are to be implemented. Documents relating to the changed syllabi, their delivery and assessment are to be found variously on the NCCA website (www.ncca.ie); on www.curriculumonline.ie; on the JCT website (www.jct.ie); on the PDST website (www.pdst.ie); on the SEC website (www.examinations.ie) and on the DES website (www.education.ie). Many of these documents are undated and it is difficult for the average reader to know whether they relate to the old or the revised syllabi. On its website, the NCCA’s national curriculum framework provides minimal information and emphasises that teachers should customise the guidelines for their own particular students. The PDST website continues to provide guidelines and support materials, and the SEC website provides sample examination papers (which, unfortunately, may well be the sole determinant for some teachers of what will be taught and learned in classrooms!). The website of the Department of Education also includes further information on the proposed changes, including circulars to schools setting out the administrative arrangements for the changes. While the new and comprehensive JCT website (set up in March 2016) encapsulates all the information about the revised Junior Cycle curriculum in a single co-ordinated site, some of the other websites do not adequately emphasise the links to JCT. Nor is it always clear on some of the older websites whether their resources relate to the new specification or to the old syllabus. In order to counter some of the confusing misinformation about Junior Cycle reform that is currently being disseminated, this author suggests that an information campaign, highlighting the JCT website, and accessible to parents and students as well as to teachers, be mounted. The excellent online leaflet, entitled ‘Information for Parents of Primary School Students’ should now be re-titled ‘Information for Parents of Post-Primary — 45 —
Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System School Students’, and reissued for parents whose children have just enrolled in post-primary schools and widely distributed through schools, libraries, community centres etc. As indicated in an earlier section, it is important that hard-copy versions of support resources, as well as web-based versions, continue to be made available for the foreseeable future. Senior Cycle Ireland differs from a number of other EU countries in having a relatively undifferentiated Senior Cycle. When free education was introduced in Ireland in the late 1960s, and when vocational schools began to provide Senior Cycle education, it was envisaged that there would be a two-track system at Senior Cycle - with a technical Leaving Certificate provided by the vocational sector and an academic Leaving Certificate provided by the voluntary secondary sector (DES, 1972). A debate about a two-track system occurred again in the early 1990s following the publication of the Culliton Report (Sheehan, 1992) but following protracted discussion and consultation, Ireland decided not to adopt a dual technical/academic track at Senior Cycle (Gleeson, 2010). In practice, however, some differentiation does occur at Senior Cycle, as students can choose from a wide variety of Leaving Certificate subjects (both academic and technical) and they may opt to take these subjects at either Higher or Ordinary level. When students complete Junior Cycle, they may take the Transition Year (TY) programme or proceed directly to the first year of a two-year Leaving Certificate programme. Thus, Senior Cycle is comprised of either two or three years, depending on whether or not students take TY. TY provides students with access to a broader range of subjects, skills and experiences than otherwise provided in second-level education. It was first introduced as a pilot programme in the mid-1970s and expanded significantly following re-structuring in 1994. It is a matter for each individual school to decide whether they will offer TY and, if so, which students will engage with it. Smaller schools and those serving disadvantaged areas are less likely to provide TY than other schools (Smyth, Byrne and Hannah, 2004). Almost 60% of Senior Cycle students opt to enrol in TY - participation has increased from about 23,000 students in the year 2000 to about 30,000 in 2014. There are three types of Leaving Certificate programme – the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) programme, the Leaving Certificate Established (LCE) and the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP). All three Leaving Certificate programmes are two-year programmes. The LCE is taken by the largest proportion of students (around 60%). Students taking this programme must take five subjects but usually take six or seven. There is a heavy emphasis on the terminal or endof-cycle examination, which is marked and graded by external examiners. Most subjects are examined by one three-hour examination paper, with the exception of Irish, English and Mathematics, where students sit two three-hour papers. In some subjects, other modes of assessment are used in addition to the terminal written examination. In languages, a component of the marks — 46 —
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Towards a Better Future

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