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LAST UPDATE | 15 Feb 2021
TALKS ON THE proposals for Leaving Cert 2021 are continuing this evening after they had collapsed last week.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) withdrew from the talks last Thursday citing concerns about whether the proposals on the table were workable.
A round of intense talks between union and department officials took place today, which are understood to now be at a sensitive stage in the negotiations.
Any decision or announcement on the Leaving Cert exam is dependent on the continuing discussions with education stakeholders.
The Minister of Education has said the government is committed to preparing for a twin-track approach to plan both a traditional Leaving Cert and a “corresponding measure”.
The ASTI had said last week that the approach being adopted would see the Leaving Cert being “relegated” behind a calculated grades option. It also expressed concern that the lack of data this year would make such an option “extremely challenging”.
Union representatives met with the minister on Friday in a meeting that was said to be constructive and the ASTI agreed to enter again into full talks.
“The minister was unequivocal in her statement of commitment to holding the Leaving Certificate this year,” the ASTI said.
“On that basis, the ASTI believes that doubts regarding the staging of additional component elements of this year’s Leaving Certificate Examinations have been substantially alleviated. We expect the minister to ensure that they will take place.”
In its statement, the AST said that its concerns over a lack of data potentially hampering a calculated grades option was discussed.
The union said that the minister had committed to “working with stakeholders to strengthen the position in this regard”.
Although talks are to begin again today, the government has said that no timeline is being set about when an official announcement can be expected.
NPHET
Speaking at the Department of Health press briefing this evening, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published an updated risk assessment today and outlined that the closure of schools “should be a last resort”.
“As I’ve said here on many occasions, it has to be our first priority to get our schools reopened,” Glynn said.
“That said, we’re by no means alone across Europe at the moment in having significant parts of our education system closed, and we are keen to get them reopened,” he said.
Glynn added that the reopening of schools will “need to be done on a phased basis” and that it will “need to be done cautiously”.
He said that he is aware that talks are ongoing regarding the reopening of schools, however added that he is “not going to provide a statement that gets into the middle of those talks”.
“I’ve been very clear that our primary concern was around the mobility that was involved in a full reopening and the over one million people that necessitated in terms of mobility and the impact of that on disease transmission,” Glynn said.
“The disease is going in the right direction. We’re not there yet. We need to continue to see decreases … last week we saw a decrease of 15% which is much reduced on previous weeks, so we need to continue to see progress over the coming weeks,” he said.
Includes reporting by Hayley Halpin
With reporting by Christina Finn
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Any talk on a possible date fir the reopening of Montessori/ preschools. I have a 4 year old daughter who is an only child. I appreciate she is not doing any life changing exams. However she has not seen a single friend since this never ending lockdown had taken place. Preschool years are very important for both mental and social development. Zoom calls or classes don’t work for this age group
@Murph11: my boy is the same, I’m a teacher and dying to get back. Hopefully very soon.
@Murph11: I completely agree. I have a 16 year old social butterfly with a smartphone and it’s taking it’s toll. I can only imagine your poor child’s struggles.
@Murph11: worth noting that the talks are about schools opening but understand your difficulty
@Frainc Ó Broin: I meant not about opening, my phone seems to have its own opinions
@Murph11: could you not form a little bubble with a friend that she can see. I have two young daughters and once a week they have their cousin over for a sleepover, generally Friday night and play all day Saturday. It’s been great for them. To be honest, if you are willing for them to go back to school, then mixing with another child should be ok. I can’t wait till we get back to school, but in the meantime, this has been working for us.
@Murph11: 1st world problem. You’re out of touch with reality. Get your head out of your ar#e.
Listen to the Students- they come first, before the Teachers and before the Politicians.
It’s the hardest time ever to be a leaving Cert student, they are under more stress and pressure than any other year in History.
They have a very uneven playing field, some schools good some poor at online learning.
The mental health of students is far more important than any other considerations.
The Minister & Teachers have their own agendas and need to stop preaching and start listening.
The anger amongst students has made them highly political and will cost the Government parties votes well into the future…..
@David Grey: all schools are equal as are all teachers- ask the ASTI
@John Lyons: yep, thankfully, all of us parents are eternally grateful that our kids wishes and parents input have been taken off the table completely, and now we don’t have to worry about the unnecessary stress of taking on the burden of late night and sensitive talks would have on the million of us, as opposed to the 10 blokes representing 20k teachers.
@David Grey: couldn’t agree more. Such an uneven playing field out there for LC 2021. Poor kids anxiety through roof. Govt need to sort it early this week as promised.
Time to rethink education in the country.
Engage with the parents, for the first time parents are finally seeing what students are and aren’t succeeding in.
Close the tech division in low income families.
Support the whole student. Not just academics, mentally and emotionally. Rethink assessment also there’s more to a student than the grade.
@Eddie Michael: sounds like you haven’t been into a school in quite a long time. Parents are consulted with on a regular basis, IT grants issued to schools with aim to supply laptops etc to students who need them. Every school has a Wellbeing programme which serves to develop the students in a holistic way, outside of academia. Assessment at LC is under review and will likely follow continuous assessment model of Junior Cycle.
@Jonathan Regan: agreed re wellbeing program in schools, but I agree with you about little else. Do you truly believe JC reforms -a couple of 10% cba in most subjects- constitute ‘continuous assessment’ as claimed? If be extremely worried if any LC reform follows that of the JC. Would you be so kind as to point me towards basic details on the LC review? Who is conducting the review, what are its parameters, aims etc?
Re the IT grants issued to schools – there are still ens if not hundreds of thousands of students in the country without laptops and /or internet access. Don’t you think a proper survey by the department, ideally last April, of every school and its needs and centralized procurement, would have been significantly more effective? This is what happened in other jurisdictions
@Ali Ryan: agree with your comment on JC, should be more practical based. However representative bodies for students, parents & teachers have been involved in senior cycle review. https://www.ncca.ie/media/4024/sc-review-consultation-july-2019.pdf
@Caddyshack: thank you for that link
@Eddie Michael: you have a point, but I think the practical implementation of parents input needs to stop being a tick box. Often, parents of children who left the schools system years ago have more value. Agree completely with tech divide – parents who invested in iPads at a huge profit to (one) tech company resulted in no advantage to students or parents costs, and low cost options should have been mandated by dept – eliminating the need for a pandemic to showcase how tiered education is.
@Eddie Michael: Maybe we could start with the subsidy provided to Private fee paying schools that is paid for by the taxes of the people who are deprived of the tech and other benefits they need and deserve. Why do the most militant Unions in the State never address this old problem. Equalising pay is the only equality they deem worth a discussion it seems.
Will Unions stay course this time or behave like schoolyard bullies, when things don’t go their way and walk away again
@Philip Howlin: what are you talking about? Unions pull out of negotiations all the time as a tactic. If anything it was good to see them put manners on a clueless Minister of Education who is more interested in courting public opinion than solving the Leaving Cert issue.
@Valthebear: oh you better believe it’s the teachers the public want manners put on….to use your phrase..
@Declan: no,Declan,it’s what you wanr. Amazingly,you have not yet been acclaimed as the voice of parents in Ireland. I’ the parent of a child in LC and understand ASTIs difficulties. Your polemics on “what parents want” is a little sad. Btw,I’m a teacher (primary) but maybe in your mind that invalidates my concerns as a parent?
@Declan: sorry,I’ll try to rephrase that better. Who are you to decide what the public wants? I’m a primary school teacher,have a son doing the Leaving and understand ASTI’s position very well. You are not a spokesperson for the parents of Ireland,despite your frequent ( and frankly pompous) pronouncements. Breathe deeply and read a good book.
@Declan: you’re not reading the public mood right on this one.
@Declan: You haven’t the first notion what the public want. Maybe it’s what yourself and your few mates think but you haven’t a clue. You didn’t yesterday and you didn’t the day before so put away the phone and stop embarrassing yourself on the Journal every time a piece on Education crops up.
Notwithstanding the primacy of the LC, with zero talk of the JC, I’m presuming it’s not going ahead. I fear a down tools scenario in this house!!
I wonder do the majority of teachers feel well-represented by their unions. If they are smart enough to see how badly ASTI and others handle negotiations and alienate the profession, I wonder are they too scared to speak up in the staff room because the pro union group is loudest? I can’t believe that the ASTI leadership is representative of most teachers. If they are, God help the kids!
@muirhill121: majority do support their unions. Think what the ASTI did was kinda daft but nothing compared to the ineptitude of our Ministers and their Dept. Spent today organising for the return of the students in the special classes I coordinate. Dept yet to release their plan. Not like tis next Monday we open or anything. Shur I’m sure pipping said plan out Friday evening and the scarpering for the weekend will do just fine. The unions and/or staff aren’t the reason we are where we are.
@muirhill121: I wonder if you have the faintest idea how you have swallowed DES line hook,line and sinker? I’m a primary teacher,like a lot of us, we are scratching their heads about ASTI strategy,but our unions do represent us and the more the likes of yourself try to blame unions,the harder the stance is likely to get. Have you emailed DES regarding their strategy?
@muirhill121: Yes I’m embarrassed by what my Union is doing because they’re treating the students like a competing interest group instead of helping facilitate their clear wishes for calculated grades. Students should get the final say . The students are the clients, the teachers are the builders and the government are the dodgy architects with a bad rep in building a solution. Unions think that teachers are the clients but they’re not. It’s the students that have to live in this house, not us. I do understand the massive distrust in a Dept that told teachers this time last year ranking of student would be totally anonymous and then once teachers did it, the laughed and published the rankings. Call me naive but I don’t think everyone out to protect their own is the best tactic here.
Describing the discussion as negotiations is a symptom of all that is wrong. This shouldn’t be about who’s position is correct it should be about agreeing the best possible arrangements to get schools back up and running. This is not about Dept of Ed v Teachers it’s about doing right by students.
@Michael Mcgregor: thats not how the Ministers or the Dept function.
Its enough to make me vote Sinn Fein
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