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RTÉ’S BOARD is to hold a special meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the findings of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which yesterday upheld a complaint by former presidential candidate Seán Gallagher.
The authority upheld a complaint made by Gallagher regarding a tweet which was referred to in the live presidential debate on The Frontline, three days in advance of polling for the Presidential election, and again on Today with Pat Kenny on Radio 1 the next day.
The tweet had been attributed by Pat Kenny to the “Martin McGuinness for President” Twitter account, an attribution which the BAI said was “unfair to Gallagher”.
Gallagher was unsuccessful, however, in seeking an investigation or public hearings into how what he described as a “controversial and bogus tweet”. The BAI also said it could not force RTÉ to apologise.
In a statement last night RTÉ chairman Tom Savage said he accepted the BAI’s “thoroughly considered decisions, which merit close attention”.
He said he would convene the RTÉ Board tomorrow morning for that purpose, when it would “deliberate on the findings and discuss the matter in full”.
A spokesman for Gallagher this morning said the businessman would not be taking any more action on the matter, or issuing any more comment, before RTÉ fulfilled its obligation to broadcast the BAI’s findings.
He added, however, that he was “happy with what has been reported” this morning, referring to reports that Gallagher had not yet ruled out legal action over RTÉ’s actions.
Yesterday evening RTÉ director general Noel Curran apologised to Gallagher on RTÉ’s behalf.
“Any failure or shortcoming which could reduce that trust around major national events must be regarded seriously and we must address all issues which arise for us in respect of mistakes made,” he said.
Curran said the broadcaster was formalising a new set of guidelines to reinforce procedures on how information from social media and other sources would be authenticated.
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And about time too.
But it seems daft! We all can remember teachers who had pet students and pupils who they despised. Students mismatched or not on the same wavelength as their teacher. The Elephant in the room is, who is going to guarantee impartiality under the new system if it is teachers who are examining their own students?
They really have no choice in the matter as so few of our students can pass it. With the exception of Irish and Irish history, American students who were given our living cert exam passed it by a factor of 12x over our students!
@Aoife: “so few of our students can pass it”
the statistics don’t show that:
http://www.cso.ie/px/des/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=eda95&ti=Junior+Certificate+Results+(Number)+by+Year,+Details+of+Results+and+Sex&path=../Database/DES/Examination%20Statistics/&lang=1
Did you pass your ‘living cert’ Aoife?
It should also be made mandatory that no one can leave school at this point but must continue until leaving cert.
Never gonna happen.
Maybe stay in some form of education until 18 but forcing kids to do the leaving certificate that have no interest/aptitude for academic lifestyle is cruelly pointless.
Absolutely Conor, not everyone wants to take the path of university etc and deserve to be able to use other very valid routes to the workplace.
Great idea. The stress it causes kids is unreal. Assessments through out the year is much better .
Stress is part of life. Taking stress out of a competitive system is impossible. Its a fair test. The expansion of continuous assessment in the UK is behind to rampant grade inflation. This will happen here at an increased pace. The real danger is if the Leaving Cert were to be replaced with continuous assessment. That would be truly backward.
@Aoife can you please give a reference to that study comparing US and Irish students? I’d love to read about it.
Agree Sharon – in terms of outcomes this attachment outlines the Finnish approach – a million miles from our own – learner-centred, students involved in designing their learning activities and assessing their own learning, and they have the highest PISA scores for literacy numeracy etc in the world…
http://ims.mii.lt/ims/files/EducationmodelFinland_Marianne.pdf
Their education system is characterised by “giving equal value to all aspects of individual growth and learning: personality, morality, creativity, knowledge and skills”.
Sounds like a positive move, however I do think formal exams have a place in the junior cycle to force a culture of pressure and something big to aim for knowing that it is not just a slam dunk.
I agree. The move to continuous assessment is definitely a positive but there will always be a place for formal examinations.
There is also some space for rote learning. Assessment methods can be massively useful indicators not only of how much someone knows but also the depth of understanding and ability to apply what they have learned.
All of this can be catered for in dividing the assessment between continuous assessment and regular examinations. Design of assessment can provide massive value to both the teachers and the pupils.
Also, pupils should be able to get results which help them identify more where they are strong and where they can be stronger. If you look at some JC papers that are there now, some of them have sections which look for knowledge with other sections looking for understanding and application.
It’s not consistent across subjects but it would certainly be helpful to be able to give pupils an overall mark plus a division on where the marks came from – e.g. to be able to show how many of those marks are down to knowledge, understanding, application, creativity etc etc…
Why exactly is more continuous assessment positive? A great deal of the support for it is based on hunches and unproven feelings. The reality is they are less fair, harder to regulate and easier to cheat in.
Rather than terminal exams it facilitates formative assessment. The benefits of which are researched and proven way beyond hunches.
I’m assuming you have a pretty fixed view of what continuous assessment means if your opinion is truly as stated. Continuous assessment could be as simple as covering a topic and doing an exam in that topic once covered with your mark going towards a 3rd year final grade.
There are issues around continuous assessment but that does not make them insurmountable issues.
The literature on the issue suggests that continuous assessment gives a fair clearer picture of the ability of a student. In general, terminal exam systems are a test of memory, not ability.
Memory testing is still relevant. Many professions are based on memory. CA has a role but its expansion will greatly encourage plagiarism and we won’t be able to measure it. Plagiarism is only beginning to be dealt with in universities with expensive software like Turnitin. A certain amount of plagiarism in third level is impossible to detect even with the best technology. Without an approach like this the problem of plagiarism can indeed be insurmountable.
I agree. I mean my JC (11 years on) is a pretty useless piece of paper that doesn’t even get a look-in on the CV but its gives great practice for the setting & what’s expected. Even getting used to the booklets, filling in your number instead of name is all good practice. Also I had some wonderful teachers who I really liked & the feeling was returned but equally I had others & we could hardly stand one another; my class once had a teacher refuse to teach us! We weren’t wild kids but it was LCVP & we couldn’t take it seriously, anyway if she were marking us we’d all have failed or barely passed but our actual results were distinctions pretty much all round so CA may bring issues if marked by ones own teacher.
I can honestly say it has been a nightmare putting a child through the pointless torture of the Junior Certificate. We badly need to reform education to be more loving, enjoyable, person-centred and creative. Let’s hope they are getting on with the reform of the Leaving Certificate to be more humane too. There is way too much stress on our young people and school is by far the biggest stress in their lives
See page 29 of this comprehensive report on youth mental health (14,000 young Irish people took part): http://www.headstrong.ie/sites/default/files/My%20World%20Survey%202012%20Online.pdf
And see also this brilliant and engaging animate re standardised testing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
don’t think its a good idea. maybe less stress but come on being 15/ 16 @ the time of the Junior Cert is not being a ‘kid’ anymore. the exams are good to get the used to what’s waiting on later in the Leaving Certificiate as getting into university is getting increasingly competitive. i’m afraid the continous assesment system may get many students lazy as they’d probsbly pass anyways without the greatest effort…
If he goes ahead with this as a blanket solution for all subjects the state should be sued. And they will be because there will be so many cases of teachers not giving fair due to students they might hold a grudge against. Yes, we’d all love to think that all teachers are fantastic at their jobs and would never have it in for certain students, but that is NOT the reality as most people know. This is completely a populist idea to help Labour win votes and they will not get away with it.
I’d love to see how this is handled actually. Teachers have expressed the concern before that marking their own pupils’ work “changes the relationship” between teacher and pupil.
It’s really a question of integrity.
I know what you’re saying though – there shouldn’t be that question at all. Some kind of statistical tool could be used perhaps? It would definitely need some kind of cross checking.
The thing about people thinking this is a bad idea…. I wonder do they know that this has been happening already for years. In (at least)Leaving Certificate Construction Studies there is project work that gets marked by the teacher and an external examiner comes in to selectively check the teacher markings.
“Interestingly, the new system will only differentiate between higher and ordinary level grades for English, Irish and Maths – with all over subjects eventually taught to a common level when the new regime kicks in.”
Read = dumbing down.
This will all end in tears mark my words, the NCCA and the Dept of Education couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, never mind overhaul our education system.
The initiative sounds about right – the current examination system is fundamentally flawed, and a system of continuous assessment would shift the focus and allow for a more integrated, broader and generally more comprehensive education experience. This will, in turn, facilitate a smoother transition to third-level education for Irish students.
However, there are definite concerns about a teacher-based continuous assessment system – assessment should be standardised and distributed by the state, not left at the discretion of a teacher who, through no conscious fault, will always be prone to subjectivity. Professionalism can only circumvent human nature so far.
Nonetheless, it’s most certainly a step forward for education. At least one Minister is delivering on his Program for Government commitments.
http://www.perspectvivesbyjack.com/
The most important issue here is the motivation behind the proposal. If it has been made for educational reasons and not financial ones, an interesting debate will ensue. If on the otherhand it is financial expediency then we are watching the collapse of the education system.
I think to be fair, it’s probably the former though. One of the biggest problems in our system is the mismatch between the Primary and Secondary school systems. Primary is child-centred and Secondary is exam-centred. This causes stress for students and incoherence in the system. There is no reason in my mind why the early years of Secondary could not have a more exploratory tone; where space is made for project-work and interdisciplinary activities. Imagine an art classes doing a joint project with a history class on the Renaissance or a science class doing a project with a geography class on Climate Change. The possibilities are endless, exciting and ideally suited to prepare our young people for the world of work where collaboration and creativity are essential.
Teachers (I am one) will worry that continuous assessment will result in even more overload but it (probably) won’t. Without the pressure of exams looming, it would just be a matter of establishing criteria for how to assess different types of work e.g. oral presentations, written work etc. and then keeping a log of the results on excel. Template for all of these could easily be distributed by the Department with minimal effort. Of course teachers would have to be a bit clearer about how grades are calculated.
As regards sueing schools- how many cases have you ever heard of where a school was brought to court because a parent thought their child should have been given 80% instead of 75% in a 2nd Christmas report? That is what people seem to be suggesting here and it is simply not rational.
It’s got nothing to do with educational or financial motives. This is populist. Most people will be in favour of this, even the majority of students. The government don’t do things like this to save money or improve education standards.
Sorry, that animate is by Sir Ken Robinson on reforming our education system generally, not just standardised testing and it is absolutely brilliant and thought-provoking…
Yeah Tomy I can see its merit in practical subjects for sure, esp when external examiners are doing random spotchecks, and if we could trust teachers then this could make sense, particularly alongside formal examinations also. But to leave it completely in the hands of teachers and with no other outsider examining then this is a very, very bad idea. They will regret it because parents and students are more ballsy and outspoken now and they will stand up for themselves in most cases where they perceive there to be an injustice done. This is a populist stunt and it will backfire and it will backfire after Ruairí Quinn has vacated the position with his golden pension, etc. It is up to the educators now to stand up and stop this, but again, can we trust them to do that? I think not.
Tommy- you can add History, Geography and LCVP to that list too and there’s probably many more.
Yes and project work for the leaving cert is the area most open to compromise and corruption – cut and pasting from the Internet – help from friends and relatives – so much help from well meaning teachers that they and not the student are most responsible for the grade – the old system was absolutely transparent and incorruptible – it has problems but continuous assessment is an at active can housing some foul worms – in univsities plagiarism is rife and students can purchase papers over the Internet – just like Churchill said about democracy – the terminal exam that is externally assessed by standardised grade criteria is the least bad and therefore best means of assessing and driving learning
very few classes at 3rd level are 100% final exam and it is a bit of a a culture shock going from 100% exam to CA and exams so its good practice for college. Also work for CA is expected to be at a higher level as you have weeks to do it as opposed to a 3hr time limit and more scope for research
Just so you all know , in the light of the HUGE news today about the abolition of the JC- 99% of teachers have NEVER been consulted. The news makes it look like we are all on board- there are many things that the public don’t know and you should never make assumptions on what goes on behind the school gates- it’s not all good- think of the massive pressure that will now be on the kids not just for 2 weeks in the summer but ALL the time- it’s also the principal that a Government can just DECIDE on these things without full consultation- also in the next 4 years every single secondary school teacher now has to have new training- more cost, new publications, new school books more expense- the ideas are good but the management and implementation is not
They need also to consult widely with children and young people in an age-appropriate way about their learning experience and environment – what they feel helps them to learn well, what hinders their learning. If you listen they have remarkable agreement on what is hindering their learning and what helps, but nobody is listening, despite this being considered good practice in other countries – but since when did Ireland ever listen to citizens and service-users – perhaps it’s not in our DNA!
I believe our education system is not fit for purpose in the modern world. It is a severely damaging affair for way too many children. It privileges academic subjects and does not, at secondary level anyway, take enough account of multiple intelligences and learning styles, many young people are disengaged because they are bored in school, not involved enough in their own learning, and then subject to disciplinary systems that punish them for essentially not being engaged. A shocking waste of vibrant potential.
Why is school by far the biggest stress in an adolescent’s life? Is that OK?
How will continuous assessment put massive stress on children? Not if you do it right – for example, many schools (but not in this country) also use self-assessment as part of the ongoing process, together with teacher assessment.
You also have to understand that at the present time the majority of students (my son has just done the Junior Cert last year) do not see any point in the Junior Cert, as they are well aware it dates from a time when you were quite likely to leave school after it and so it was a qualification. Now it qualifies you for nothing. The stress on my son and his mates last year with the Junior Cert was unnecessary and horrible. Ongoing assessment, project work, with more individual and group responsibility will be so much more enjoyable and they will learn how to think for themselves much better. Last year was all cramming facts to regurgitate for the Junior Cert – undignified and not what learning should be about, and lower order thinking.
I heard a lecture by an education specialist who said that they are having to deal with undergraduates who cannot think for themselves thanks to our learning-by-rote exams-based education system. For today’s world, both work and living, fostering creativity and critical thinking skills are what are supposed to be more relevant and important. What is documented to have a positive effect on learning and achievement is the engagement of students in their learning, feeling involved in planning their own learning, feeling happy, welcome and a part of the school community, and relationships between teachers and students. Students being more involved in their own learning and continuous assessment simply work better…
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Bloody kids don’t know their born. And rashers were much nicer years ago and HB brunches were three times the size. Now give me me knackers blanket and turn up the Super Ser.
This will give teachers too much power
Power which most teachers, and I am one, don’t want. And it is dumbing down. Indeed since I started teaching the dumbing down if the whole system has been the single greatest tragedy of my career. It’s now all about ensuring students are happy rather than properly educated and that students never learn that they are different to others in terms of intelligence be it brighter or not so bright. Homogenisation rules now and our job is about feeding the ego instead if the mind.
I’m not sure if you are serious about being a teacher Alan because if so I am shocked that you would describe children in terms of brighter or not so bright! There are multiple intelligences granted, but unless you have an actual learning disability or difficulty, children are not brighter or not bright – it is well documented that engagement, confidence, relationships within the school and with the teacher, involvement in learning and a feeling of emotional safety are huge factors in how well children learn. Any parent knows that when their child has a bad teacher (whether in terms of pedagogy or being rude and disrespectful to children, or not being able to work with groups) they will not do well in that subject.
I heard a talk from a guy from, I think, DCU, about how the Irish undergraduates that come to their colleges are not capable of creative and independent thought because of our education system.
And what is wrong with students being happy anyway? Most are miserable in school. Is that OK? Look at the My World survey of 14,000 Irish adolescents and you will see how school is the greatest stress in their lives by a long shot (not just exams either – that’s a separate category). Why are we not listening to them? After all it is their education and if the system so far has delivered at the end of it young people who cannot think or engage with third level properly, it has failed.
Even if you are not interested in the happiness of the students who spend most of their waking hours in school, or do not want to see them as whole people who carry their emotions with them, then even just looking at outcomes, more enlightened systems in other countries have better outcomes.
Feeding the ego is not the aim I would of thought of any system that is dealing with children – respecting them, giving them a say, providing them with a stimulating learning environment, understanding that they are human beings not divorced from their feelings and have a right not to be miserable in school is hardly feeding their egos.
interesting report on a group of English students on exchange to Finnish school (highest PISA scores on literacy, numeracy, etc in world) where they were knocked out by the feeling of trust and respect, the responsibility the students were given, the good teacher student relationships and first name terms, the lack of uniforms, etc: – we can only dream of something so humane and enlightened. As the English students put it:
‘I don’t think people enjoy school here [England]
… they’re forced to come to school. I think it’s
all to do with this relaxed happy atmosphere that
they have in Finland, they enjoy coming to school
coz they haven’t got the rules, they haven’t got the
regulation, they haven’t got exams, they haven’t
got the pressure, they enjoy their time at school.
Whereas here, I think sometimes we’re just seen
as a set of statistics, which isn’t really a nice thing
to be.’ [Rhianna, 15 years old]
Teachers trust them [Finnish learners] in ways
that they don’t us, they are given responsibility in
the idea that there isn’t such a strict regime of
sanctions and rewards and such. They’re given
the responsibility … but not to the teachers as
such, but to each other and themselves … That
was one of the reasons why they think, ‘We
actually won’t do that [behave badly] because
we’ve been given the responsibility now not to.’
[Joe, 16 years old]
Sorry that report here: http://www.uel.ac.uk/wwwmedia/microsites/riste/Gerry-Czerniawski-Article-14-18.pdf
They don’t want this, check it out, all teacher representative bodies have been resisting teacher assessment – not because they don’t want the ‘power’ (which they don’t) but because of the power of school authorities and parents to try to influence the outcomes of students
Finnish system, highest in world on PISA scores for literacy, numeracy etc, is described as being characterised by emphasis on:
Equal value to all aspects of individual growth and learning: personality, morality, creativity, knowledge and skills.
This is contrasted in the report with the General Western Model which is characterised by emphasis on: Basic skills in reading, writing, mathematics and science as prime targets of education reform.
“The Finnish Education System and PISA”
They also have low class sizes, they have a very equal society, they do not have homework, the atmosphere in schools is relaxed and informal, and outdoor activities are also stressed.
Their core curriculum for their comprehensive education system is:
mother tongue and literature, second national language (Swedish/Finnish), foreign language(s), mathematics, environmental and nature studies (lower grades), biology and geography, physics and chemistry, health
education, religion or ethics, history, social studies, music, visual arts, crafts, physical education, home
economics, and educational and vocational guidance. Especially in lower secondary schools, pupils are also
offered one or two weekly hours of school-specific courses to choose from.
The cross-curricular themes introduced in some length in the core curriculum comprise: growth as a
person, cultural identity and internationalism, media skills and communication, participatory citizenship and
entrepreneurship, responsibility for the environment, well-being and a sustainable future, safety and traffic,
and technology and the individual. They are to be implemented in the overall working culture of schools,
in actual school subjects, and in special activities, from excursions and school meals to camp schools,
clubs and school festivities.
I teach some Finnish school kids and I can report that that system has is downsides. While they do have some homework, it isn’t really enough, in my view, to ensure they actually learn anything. I think the emphasis in Finland is too much on “feeling good” and not actually learning. And they like to think their society is equal, but an article in “The Helsinki Times” today reports that, among other things, nearly 40% of undergraduate students have a father who is one of Finland’s top 10% of earners (defined as earning more than €46,800 p.a.). So educational inequality is alive and well here. On top of all that the kids are really badly disciplined, leading to frequent school shootings, bullying, and overall nasty teenagers, in my opinion. It’s nice that kids aren’t stressed out by school, but only to a certain extent.
it is not necessarily the exam itself that is at fault there is no room to assess real skills exams don’t account for kids who have specific talents in specific areas and do not concentrate on children’s ability and strength also at present there is a narrow sense of what kids should be and not who they are as individuals the system is afraid to teach critical thinking because our kids might start to question the system they are forced into teachers appear to teach in a sophistic style and are fearful of those kids who may challenge the status quo will this system improve this and allow our kids to think for themselves
Great move – NOT!
Teachers will come under pressure from school authorities, parents and SEC to mark students up. How will DES react when large numbers of students ‘under achieve’ if they aren’t in control of the grade quotes, interesting SEC retaining marking of Maths and English (will this boost our OECD rating as there is no transparency in the assessment), Irish thrown in as a smokescreen.
Here’s hoping these reforms encourage people in the junior cycle to perform to their best ability … Here I am, sitting in my kitchen very pleased with what I’m reading … Because it’s not all about rote learning, and in most cases it should probably be avoided … It’s also time to make Irish literature a different subject, maybe even make it optional, because there’s no point forcing people to learn it, especially when they can’t understand it … teaching people to speak the language is more important than forcing them to read poetry they can’t understand
The most interesting innovation are the new literacy and numeracy tests at the end of second year: high time they were brought in, as most Irish kids leave school unable to write in English effectively. It has to be backed up by English grammar teaching though (yes, I know people don’t like the idea of it, but it has to be learnt if you want to communicate effectively). And what will happen to the kids who fail the tests?
Grammar camp … Summer school a la America … who knows …
have your say