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THE JUNIOR CERTIFICATE will limit students to a maximum of eight subjects from 2014, under a new government plan to improve literacy and numeracy in second-level students.
The plans, unveiled by education minister Ruairí Quinn, will see extra time in lessons specifically devoted to improving reading and arithmetical skills – with the end result being that the number of subjects will be capped at eight.
Schools will be able to instruct their pupils in other subjects, but students will not be able to sit exams in them.
The Irish Times outlines that primary schools will now spend 90 minutes a day on literacy study, and 50 minutes on numeracy, with a standardised national test to measure standards in both fields at the end of 2nd, 4th and 6th class as well as during 2nd Year in secondary school.
The Irish Independent described the new rules as the start of a ‘major reform package’ of second-level education which will also see changes to the methods by which students enter third-level education.
It added that the reformed subjects would make it more difficult for students to learn material off by heart and skew their performance in exams as a result.
The new Junior Cert regime will affect students entering second level from 2012.
The strategy will also see student teachers spending more time on teaching practice.
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Religion should be cut from the curriculum entirely. Ireland is now a multi religion country, and schooling religion smacks in the face of non catholic children. Religion should be thought at home, and all religious paraphernalia and teachers should also be removed.
This should make time for literacy and numerical skills, which the youth of today clearly need.
Religious education should cover a multitude of religions. Simple as that. Removing it from the curriculum entirely would be wrong.
Agreed about religion in schools, it should be at home or in “Sunday schools”, it’s unfair to affectively waste school time with it
Neuromancer – we are in a multicultural society – and religion in school is the only way the majority of children learn anything about their friends of world religions. Their parents are hardly going to teach them beliefs of other religions. That is a narrow minded way of looking at things. You are saying we are a multi cultural society but you want to remove the opportunity for young people to learn about their friends religion and culture.
10 subjects at junior cert was always way too much!!!
In our school it’s 11!
I did twelve.
this could be very interesting, will students be able to sit extra exams for their leaving cert, currently its nine for junior and seven for leaving unless you want to do extra subjects, but why the cap? if a student is good why limit them?
I just sat 11 subjects for my JC, that’s 15 papers. Don’t know where you got 9 from.
its actually 11/12 for junior cert!
Race to the bottom. The above is just one absurd element of yesterday’s report. Cutting SESE time at primary level (of which Science is a key component) to fulfil literacy requirements is robbing Peter to pay Paul and flies in the face of all reports on Maths/Science which directly correlate to employment levels. Where is the suggestion to adjust the time spent teaching religion (which we are, as teachers, are supposed to teach 30 minutes a day) to accommodate the recommendations? Incidentally, there isn’t an infant/junior teacher in the country who doesn’t already spend at least 90 minutes a day on ‘literacy’ matters. We can’t follow children home, much of the report (bedtime reading etc.) is for parents to consider.
So in order to ensure that more students achieve the required standards they lower the standard?!
Face….palm.
The sheer stupidity of this plan is beyond belief.
@John Exactly. This looks like an attempt to draw everyone down to the lowest common denominator. It’s my opinion that challenging students should be an essential part of education.
I’m sorry but its not “thought” it’s spelt taught.
Ah lay off him, you got what he meant, everybody makes mistakes
It would be nice if they taught spelling in Irish schools. Very nice. And punctuation.
Sure we all get what he means. It won’t pass a literacy test though :D
I’m not too sure of the logic behind the reforms since any student who wants to do more than the bare minimum is presumably both literate and numerate. It also occurs to me that any child who leaves primary school with literacy and numeracy problems is not going to catch up by the Junior Cert.
Rote learning has a place. It’s how we learn our literacy and numeracy skills for one thing. And I see the sacred cow of compulsory dead languages is still alive.
Michael, they also teach you in schools that you should never begin a sentence with ‘And’. Boom boom!
@ Elaine
“Its” is a possessive pronoun. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is”. Therefore you should have written “it’s not” as opposed to “its not”.
How does that feel?
I give you that one but I can still spell.
I disagree. I don’t think that is the case at all. I think what they are doing is good. They are restructuring the current set up to put more focus on the important things like numeracy and literacy. On a broad level we need to raise the minimum bar that is there for numeracy and literacy. Sure, there will always be people who excel because they work hard but most people don’t. Most people are just normal and go through school taking the education they are given. Then there are a good section of people who just scrape through and live with what they have. This is about giving EVERYONE more confidence with numbers and words. Raise the minimum bar and make sure to keep as many people above that level as possible.
sorry, that should have been in reply to @Evert Bopp. I also agree religion should be 100% cut
Numeracy and literacy should be learned in primary school. They should be focusing on fixing the utterly terrible national school system, not dumbing down the Junior Cert (which it looks like they’re doing). It’s assumed that once you go into second level, that you can read, write and do basic mathematics.
At least everyone I knew starting secondary, seven or eight years ago, could do both, and that was because I was one of the lucky ones who had good teachers in a non-dilapidated primary school.
Think the problem is cramming all assessment into a fortnight in June… funds allowing, limit the number of subjects you can take at one time but have two exam sessions a year, and allow students to take exams twice if they weren’t happy with their results or take ordinary level and then higher level.
yes religion should be thought, but about different religions, there philosphys, beliefs etc, cultures etc instead of wasting time learning about catholicism and prayers, communion and confrimation should be prepared for in church with those who want it,
Pilib. The world religions are already taught, both at junior cert and leaving cert level. In fact at leaving cert level they can study a range of religions outside of world religions. And leaving cert also has a module on philosophy which is a great chance for people who are interested in taking up philosophy in college to get a feel for the subject in school.
I just spent the last three years learning about Islam, Judaism and many other religions. We spent just as much time on Catholicism as every other religion, and I go to a CBS. You need to get your facts right about the JC course before commenting on it.
Junior Cert exams should be in-house, still formal but run within the school and externally examined. This would keep costs down and reduce the stress involved with the hype of the unknown. The type of exams should vary to reflect methodologies and different intelligence abilities. We could demand more of our teachers as a result. We don’t train our teachers to assess, we are trained to cram-teach. It’s a huge failing of the system. We are also too focussed on the lowest common denominator, being accessible to falling over a general standard line rather than differentiating for the child who excels.
An issue I see with reducing the subjects is the limitation of subject choice for leaving cert and later. On average students do 7 subjects for leaving cert and only decide which 7 are important for them (or 3 or 4 given compulsory subjects) at 15. Until now students have exposure to 10 subjects at that age and hopefully might make a well informed choice. Now this must be decided by a 12 year old coming from national school with no exposure to some of the subjects. So a child might not do science and later decide he/she wants to be a doctor.
Interesting to see the gushing approval of the Indo for these proposals…nothing,of course,to do with the fact that John Walshe,their education correspondent, is Ruairi’s special adviser!
Punctuation police always have to stick their big oar in.
I think the solution isn’t less subjects but more. Kids these days are too lazy..
I actually do not see a problem in capping the number of subjects at Junior Certificate. Literacy and numeracy skills can easily take a back seat during secondary school. It was only when I began studying Latin in University that i realised my literacy skills had been neglected. Also I do not believe that it stifles gifted students. There is no need at all to complete more than 8 subjects and doing more doesnt mean academic benefit for the student. The Junior Certificate is a state run exam and as such should be standardized for all students with obvious degrees of difficulty ie. higher or ordinary. Why put unnecessary pressure on students?
“Giving more time” is well and good, but the time needs to be used wisely. The only way to truly teach children how to read and write is to encourage them to read appreciate literature. If that’s what they want to achieve, they’ll need to reform the atmosphere of schools as much as anything else. That would include adding reading rooms and libraries, and encouraging pupils to use them. Instilling the idea that “books are fun and enjoyable” is key to achieving this.
I remember going to the school library a few times during first and second year, and later during TY. The selection of books was unimpressive, and the “fun” element was completely removed because we had to write up extensive reviews on every book we read, which were then graded and put on our reports. I realise that progress needs to be graded for bureaucratic purposes, but can we please have some Ars Gratia Artis for a change?
Time spent cramming useless information young teenagers do not understand nor need is a bit much. Eight subjects is the perfect amount once the regime is done properly and teachers understand that their job has not become easier – but more intense on other aspects of education. Numeracy and Literacy are big problems everywhere, and students are better off learning subjects intensely instead of it being spread between a lot of subjects and therefore achieving simply average results.
a load of knobheads that what I say, if you want a knowledge economy then you don’t start ny cutting subjects you start by implementing new curriculum into the junior certificate.
Ireland are trying to keep more people on the welfare it seems by this new plan, if you disagree with me then you prove my point. Education system needs to be changed.
That should make it easier to find the future McDonalds staff.
Totally disagree with this-subjects more important such as science which actually help students develop their intellectual capacity will be taking a back seat.I have 5 classes of English,Irish and math a week-but only 3 history classes? Not a good idea to treat young people like they are stupid,gifted students are left bored to tears and hopeless at school often enough as it is-I know this as I am amongst them! Resources for those with high academic ability and NO cap on subjects please!
Im kind of split on the whole idea….I mean, I agree Clara that yes, students due need more to get through the world then basic literacy and numeracy and kids do need the opportunity to explore different areas and expand their intellectual capacity. That being said, if the children in our country don’t have basic literacy, then something has to be done. Simple as.
But, frankly, literacy shouldn’t be a problem that should have to be tackled. We live in a developed nation where reading material is plentiful and with the invention and prevalence of computers, kids can write to their hearts’ desires. To be honest it looks like Ruairi Quinn is tackling the wrong problem. The problem isn’t necessarily illiteracy itself, but what is causing this illiteracy.
Also, how naive can Ruairi Quinn be? As a Junior Cert student, I can be certain in saying that any non-exam subject isn’t taken seriously. Plus, its good for kids…Im going 10 and Im living through them. 8 seems too little.
Furthermore, you prevent the JC from achieving its main purpose…stressing the hell out of kids so a 7-8 subject leaving cert seems simple.
Fiachra o Rachallaigh- the primary school system in this country is in fact one of the finest in Europe, I have no idea what you mean about people leaving school without literacy and numeracy skills it is quite clear that all children leave with these basic skills, I would like to see you teach 38 ten year olds in a small room with few resources and see if you could do a better job! The problem is with the cuts in government funding at primary level, especially cuts in special needs funding which means that children who do not learn well in a mainstream setting are now denied the one to one support they need!
great idea, drop subjects like cspe and religion that teach studends about politics, laws, tolerance of other religions (lest we forget NI) and morality. really bad idea, it will be the downfall in our already terrible educatiin system
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