People Before Profit supports the strike action by the ASTI and TUI today. The immediate issue is to prevent the Government forcing schools to take responsibility for assessment for certification, for the Junior Cert. This is, and should remain, the role of the State Examinations Commission. The Minister claims she has compromised by reducing the proposal for teacher assessment from 100% to 40%. However, the percentage is not the issue: its the principle that matters. Even 5% teacher assessment would be unacceptable. Her 40% offer is simply the thin end of the wedge and the percentage would inevitably increase to 100% over time, as per Quinns original proposal. The experience from Scotland demonstrates that teacher assessment also leads to massive bureaucracy, dramatically increasing teachers already heavy workload. Behind the agenda of transferring responsibility for assessment to schools is a wider public-sector reform agenda of transferring all responsibility for curriculum and assessment to schools, and then measuring the performance of each individual school through various forms of data, especially school league tables. Parents would then be encouraged to use such data to inform their decision making on where to send their son or daughter, acting as consumers in a marketplace of education providers. This in turn would have a negative impact on education as schools try to boost their results in the league tables to compete for students. This marketised model of education has been a disaster in England and teachers should do everything they can to resist it. This is a battle to defend the standards and equality of the public education system in Ireland. It is about resistance to the Governments attempt to gradually impose a neoliberal market model of education at second level. People Before Profit stands firmly with trade unionists who take action against this model. If you want to get involved in the wider fight against austerity and want to see an alternative to the political establishment, then why not get involved with People Before Profit. Text JOIN to 087 2839964.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 09:27:03 +0000
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