Leaving Cert reforms are being rushed by the Government and schools do not have the capacity to implement the necessary changes in an effective manner, teachers have maintained.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) argued on Tuesday that the education system was not ready to begin implementing the new reforms from next September.
The union said that a survey carried out among principals and deputy principals found that half of those who participated said their schools did not have sufficient labs to facilitate new Leaving Cert science courses.
Speaking in advance of the union’s annual conference next week, ASTI president Donal Cremin said: “It is abundantly clear that the senior-cycle redevelopment programme is being rushed and schools do not have the capacity to implement the necessary changes in an effective manner.”
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“There are wide-ranging gaps in the system, including insufficient numbers of labs and inadequate resources in schools. These gaps will undermine educational standards and fairness for Leaving Cert students.”
Minister for Education Helen McEntee told unions last week that Leaving Cert reform plans, which will see students awarded more marks for project work and less for written exams, would be proceeding in September. Unions had previously called for the measures to be deferred for a year.
ASTI said it would be taking part in further talks with the Department of Education on Tuesday on the Leaving Cert reform plans which seem set to dominate proceedings at some of the Easter teaching union conferences next week.
Under the changes, which are scheduled to be rolled out across a range of subjects for students starting with fifth year in September, a minimum of 40 per cent will be awarded for work outside written exams, such as projects, research, practicals or oral exams.
Among the subjects where reforms are planned to start are biology, chemistry, physics and business studies.
ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie said teachers were concerned, in particular, about how they could authenticate the work presented by students “when in the blink of an eye it could be produced by AI”.
The union said the shift towards 40 per cent of marks being allocated for additional assessment components had “sparked significant concerns regarding fairness, integrity and teacher and student workload”.
The union said that in its survey, school leaders shared the fears of teachers that the introduction of the additional assessments components in all subjects, without clear guidance on AI or marking schemes, was “open to many pitfalls”.
“There is a widespread belief that AI-generated content could compromise the authenticity of students’ project work.”
“The lack of guidance from the Department of Education on AI in education generally is causing increased anxiety among both school leaders and classroom teachers. The challenges it presents have not been sufficiently addressed.“
The union said that school leaders were of the view “that insufficient account is taken of their concerns that students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be disproportionately impacted by the increasing use of digital technologies in the State examinations process”.
“To ensure a fair and effective assessment system, school leaders are calling for clearer policies, better safeguards and a reconsideration of the weighting of project work.”
