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Irish Independent
14 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Will the Class of 2025 be the last traditional Leaving Cert year – or will reforms be voted down?
Members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) have already voted to accept proposed Leaving Certificate reforms ahead of industrial action. However, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) will announce its ballot of members on Friday. The union has not recommended a decision to its members. Originally both unions had been firmly against reforms to be rolled out in September. Educators raised concerns regarding a lack of preparation and a lack of resources. Tying reform to work and pay conditions is also really not right Lesley Byrne, principal of Clogher Road Community College in Crumlin, south Dublin, told the Irish Independent: 'Senior cycle reform is absolutely welcome and is long overdue. But the crux of the issue is that teachers feel, or have a sense, that the reform is being done to them instead of with them or by them. 'It really shouldn't be a situation where every time we have to have some reform, it ends up in unions having to balance their members. And tying reform to work and pay conditions is also really not right.' Teachers are at risk of losing up to 5pc of their salary if the move to put reforms in place isn't accepted, which makes it likely the motion will pass. In April, teachers also raised an alarm that reform was taking place without proper safeguards around artificial intelligence, which could potentially be used to gain an upper hand in written assessments. 'There's really genuine questions to be asked about the disparity in resources that different schools have access to,' Ms Byrne said. 'Some schools have good lab equipment and wifi, others don't. It might be assumed that every school has good wifi. That's not always the case. Things like that absolutely have to be addressed. 'The central issue is the CAO. It still has such a hold over the Leaving Cert system. Therefore teachers and school staff are so conscious that any minor change or any further disadvantage of some students could have a huge impact in terms of the CAO and what points students get – which obviously could have a bigger knock-on impact. 'If we really want to reform the senior cycle, none of that, I believe, can be done without a proper reform of the CAO system as it stands.' In April, teaching delegates passed emergency motions at their annual congress calling for their unions to move on industrial action if talks with the department failed to 'deliver an acceptable outcome". But educational sources believe it's inevitable the ASTI will also vote for changes, given the tie-in with wages at a time when house prices are rising and the cost of living is increasing. Resources remain a problem in some schools Concerns have been raised on the additional resourcing necessary to ensure no students are at a disadvantage due to reforms, particularly those in Deis schools. Paul Crone, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), said while he felt reform is the 'correct direction of travel, resources remain a problem in some schools'. 'The department has committed to doing a survey to see how many schools this applies to but there's no doubt the science labs are a critical issue,' Mr Crone added. 'There's been a pause to the Summer Works Scheme in the last few years, where updates to science labs and facilities were made. Upgrades are now critical for reform to take place. 'The Additional Assessment Component (AAC) is essential to all of this. That's to help students to spread the assessment load and for the Leaving Cert to be less of a burden on them.' Under the reform plans, the AAC would see students assessed on skills and knowledge in addition to traditional written exams, worth a minimum of 40pc of the overall grade. The AAC is expected to come in the form of practical experiments, research projects, performance assessments or the creation of projects. The class of 2026 sits on the precipice of potential historic changes to the Leaving Cert, often viewed as the most important exam of a student's life. But observers say investigation from decision-makers is also vital to establish if reforms will actually go far enough to increase equity in the Leaving Cert and higher education system. Mr Crone said reform would really be 'worthless unless we tackle how students gain entry into Higher Education via the CAO'. 'We need to take back control in post-primary education,' he added. 'Second-level education needs to be exactly that and not a filter for higher education.' The Irish Independent has asked the Department of Education for a response.
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Teachers' Union of Ireland members vote to accept proposed Leaving Certificate reforms
Members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland have voted to accept the proposed Leaving Certificate reform package rather than take industrial action. The union recommended that its members accept the proposals put forward by the Department of Education following a series of talks earlier this year. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) put the ballot to its members without a recommendation. Both unions had strongly opposed the Leaving Certificate reforms, set to begin in September, with teachers raising concerns around the readiness of schools to roll out the changes, along with the introduction of new project work components. In April, teaching delegates passed emergency motions at their annual congress calling for their unions to take industrial action if talks with the department failed to 'deliver an acceptable outcome". Following a vote on Friday, TUI members voted by a margin of 73% to 27% to accept the negotiated implementation measures for senior cycle redevelopment. TUI president David Waters said it is clear members still have a 'range of concerns' around various issues relating to the redevelopment process. "We will be insisting that the department honours the commitments set out in the negotiated document.' The TUI has specific concerns around system capacity for the roll-out of science subjects, the potential risks to assessment posed by AI, and the 'additional resourcing required to ensure that no students, particularly those in DEIS settings, are put at a disadvantage by any of the changes'. 'It is now imperative that these and any other arising issues are urgently addressed,' Mr Waters added. Read More Deis plan to emphasise retention of students up to Leaving Cert and beyond
RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
TUI members accept senior cycle redevelopment measures
Members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) have voted by a margin of 73% to 27% to accept negotiated implementation measures for senior cycle redevelopment. The union's executive committee had recommended acceptance, stating that it believed the measures were the best that could be achieved through negotiation. Announcing the outcome, the union said the ballot was on the acceptability of the implementation measures and not the actual curriculum, "which the Minister has the power to prescribe under the Education Act and which other stakeholders have no veto over". TUI President David Waters said, notwithstanding the vote, members continued to have concerns. '"We have specific concerns about the system capacity for the roll-out of the science subjects in schools that have been chronically under-resourced, the potential risks to assessment posed by AI and the additional resourcing required to ensure that no students, particularly those in DEIS settings, are put at a disadvantage by any of the changes. "It is now imperative that these and any other arising issues are urgently addressed", Mr Waters said.
Irish Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Education infrastructure another casualty of Gaza war, TUI conference hears
A motion condemning 'the continuing genocide perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people' and calling on the Government to impose sanctions was carried by delegates on the final day of the Teachers' Union of Ireland conference in Wexford. The event was addressed by Palestinian sisters Tamar and Marah Famaz Nijim who asked delegates 'to keep standing for Palestine, and talking about it, because every word counts'. Tamar, previously a teacher in Gaza , has just completed a degree in applied linguistics at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick while Marah, who was only evacuated from Gaza last Friday, is due to start studying there over the coming months. Marah talked about the challenges of living in the region while the war, and Israeli bombardments, continue. READ MORE 'Imagine walking two hours for water,' she said. 'Three or four hours to get medical attention. Being displaced from your home. Living in a tent for a year and a half. I can't call myself a war survivor because none of us survives inside'. 'I want to thank you for listening to me. And thank Ireland for helping me to finish my studies and fulfilling my dreams,' she said. Tamar, who is working as a senior invigilator at Mary Immaculate as well as doing translation work, thanked the delegates for passing the motion supporting the Palestinian people who, she said, had one of the highest literacy rates in the world before the war began. 'We were proud of our education system but now all the universities have been completely destroyed or are being destroyed,' she said. Referencing the description of the conflict by Helen McEntee on Wednesday as 'a war on children', she said 15,000 of an estimated 51,000 Palestinian dead are minors. Those numbers, she said, would proportionally equate to 37,000 and 127,000 if the Palestinian population was the same as the Irish one. The region now has more child amputees per capita than any other area in the world, she said, and hundreds of thousands of people of all ages are traumatised by what they have lived through. 'Can you put yourselves in our position?' she asked. She thanked the Irish for their continuing support but asked people to ask themselves: 'Am I doing my best to stop this?' People would look back, she suggested, and think 'it was a shame for educated people to allow something like this to happen'. In the meantime, she asked people to continue protesting for the people of Palestine, and she called for a boycott of Israel. While Palestine was in constant danger of slipping down the international agenda in the face of competing crises elsewhere, she said 'we need your help'. Responding to Ms McEntee's address on Wednesday, TUI president David Waters, who had previously emphasised the union's condemnation of the events of October 7th, 2023, said: 'the Netanyahu government has long abandoned any civility or moral compass as evidenced by the continued murderous bombing of Gaza'.
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Teachers' Union of Ireland to ballot on industrial action if Leaving Cert reform not paused
Delegates at the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) conference in Wexford have followed their Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) colleagues and voted to ballot on industrial action in the event of ongoing talks on Leaving Certificate reform failing to result in anticipated changes being paused. A motion on the issue, debated on Wednesday as the Minister for Education Helen McEntee arrived to address the delegates, was overwhelmingly passed after the conference heard the changes would affect standards and equality. A new round of talks aimed at resolving the dispute over the proposed reform started two weeks ago and is expected to conclude next month. The intention now is for a vote on industrial action, up to and including strike action, to go ahead if those talks fail. 'The facts are clear,' said TUI vice-president Anthony Quinn, who teaches in Co Monaghan, when proposing the motion on industrial action, 'these reforms are being rushed through without adequate preparation time. The resources required have not been secured, the professional concerns of teachers have been consistently overlooked'. READ MORE As the debate was in progress, Ms McEntee said the Government was providing additional funding to address concerns in relation to facilities such as labs and would also provide more training to teachers themselves. 'There's been a lot done to date, money invested in our science labs and a huge amount of teacher training has already happened. But I am engaging with them now to see what more I can do to support them. We all know these changes are being brought in for the benefit of young people.' Responding, the union's president, David Waters, insisted the level of consultation to date had fallen 'well short of what is required', the current talks had so far yielded 'very little' and teachers will press ahead with strike action if the concerns of their unions are not taken on-board. He said substantially more resources would be needed for implementation, along with flexibility to the approach taken in relation to different subjects, and the anonymity of the Leaving Cert process was 'a red line' for the union. His repeated references to the potential for strike action were well received by the conference. In her address the Minster acknowledged AI is a concern in the context of any move away from exam-based assessment but insisted she would work 'hand in hand' with teachers to ensure the process is a success. Referencing the increasingly widespread use of AI by students, Mr Waters described recent guidance that its use should be permitted as long as it was acknowledged as 'staggeringly naive', suggesting that the system will inevitably be abused.
