Planned reforms to the Junior Certificate must be implemented carefully to ensure a new system is beneficial to students' learning.

This is according to president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland Brendan Broderick, who stated that while his union is broadly in favour of the plans, modifying the system for the sake of change or simply to cut costs "would be detrimental".

He added that the current Junior Certificate is "invaluable" in helping prepare students for the senior cycle and is "seen as a highly credible, transparent and objective state exam".

Recent education cuts have led to many teachers being highly sceptical about the motivations behind the reforms, Mr Broderick said, which means the government will need to convince them the changes will be properly funded.

This year's results for the Junior Certificate have shown that girls continued to outperform boys, the Irish Independent noted, achieving more top grades and being less likely to fail exams.

Mr Broderick also stated it is pleasing that students taking Project Maths were more likely to have sat the higher paper than those on the old syllabus, saying that efforts to improve performance in the subject are "promising".

Written by Donal Walsh
 

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