`How full of briers is this workingday world!" said Rosalind in As You Like It, taking stock of her life one day as she walked through the palace. This writer knew exactly what she was talking about all those years ago when studying at home (not a palace, mind you), preparing for exams. It's hard to be adult when you're just 14 or 15. In fact, any age in junior cycle at second-level is a tough station.
In first year there are new teachers, new classmates, new subjects and slowly but surely the pressure begins to build as the first great exam hurdle looms on the horizon - the great Junior Cert exam fest.
The Junior Cert "is fantastic, great but I do feel there's a huge overload of the curriculum on the students," says Mary Hanley, president of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals of Community and Comprehensive Schools. "In our school they study nine subjects up to Junior Cert here but the present first years have 10 subjects because they have to do CSPE (Civic, Social and Political Education) as well.
"But it's certainly an improvement on the old Inter Cert and Group Cert exam because it provides for children of all abilities."
In the old system the two separate exams drew a distinction between students, but this is gone in the Junior Cert. "It has done it quite effectively," says Hanley who is vice-principal of St Caimin's Community School in Shannon, Co Clare. "Even if it's Junior Cert foundation, they feel they have achieved something."
According to the Department of Education and Science, the programme for all students at junior cycle "will include a core of Irish, English, maths, a science or a technological subject and at least three further subjects from a wide range of full courses and short courses. All students should have access to the study of a modern European language and to a recognised full course in at least one creative or performing art form."
The Junior Cert programme was introduced in 1989 to provide a unified programme for students aged broadly between 12 and 15 years. Three years later over 63,000 students sat the Junior Cert exams for the first time. Last year the number was up to just over 67,000 students.
According to a brief description from the Department, the Junior Cert "seeks to extend and deepen the quality of students' educational experience in terms of knowledge, understanding, skills and competencies and to prepare them for further study at senior cycle." The programme also tries to contribute to "the moral and spiritual development of students, and encourages them to develop qualities of responsible citizenship in a national, European and global context." Each school is expected to provide students with experience, as recommended by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), in language and literature, maths, science and technology, civic, social and political education, arts education, religious education, guidance, counselling and pastoral care, physical education, health education including personal and social development, relationships and sexuality education.
All students are expected to have access to the study of a modern European language and to a recognised full course in at least once creative or performing art form. All subjects are now offered at higher and ordinary levels, while Irish, English and maths are also offered at foundation level.
The NCCA is currently conducting a detailed review of the Junior Cert programme, at the request of the Minister. "We're looking at a number of issues, such as the curriculum framework and what constitutes the list of required subjects," says Albert O Ceallaigh, chief executive of the NCCA. The NCCA is concerned to find "a particular place" for the Civic, Social and Political Education programme and also for the Social, Personal and Health Education programme which includes the RSE module.
"The Minister has asked us to look at assessment arrangements for the Junior Cert," says O Ceallaigh. "This is a very sensitive area." Principals have problems freeing teachers to be external examiners. Also at the moment there is no assessment of students in oral skills in languages. There is no assessment of practical skills in science and there is no provision for measuring "new intelligences" either.
The assessment work which does exist in some Junior Cert subjects already puts "huge pressure" on schools, as Hanley points out. "It's very, very unsettling, the amount of time that our teachers are being taken out of the school. It's disruptive for the students and for the school. It has put phenomenal pressure on schools. That's a major drawback. We can't afford to have children being supervised while their own teachers are away."
In the meantime, the NCCA expects to present a report on its review to its council next month and a final report to the Minister in December. So to all those stressed-out junior cycle students, we say hang in there and take heart. There is life after the Junior Cert.
