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LAST UPDATE | 10 May 2020
TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL representatives have called it “unacceptable” and “completely inappropriate” for students and parents to be contacting Leaving Cert teachers to lobby them about the calculated grade.
They suggested in interviews with RTÉ, of putting in place a protocol to log these attempts at lobbying, to ensure fairness and objectivity in Plan C for the Leaving Cert this year.
On Friday, it was announced that the Leaving Cert exams on 29 July would be cancelled, and students would instead receive ‘calculated grades’.
These are calculated through teachers giving their students an assessment score, reviewed by other teachers and the principal, which will then be sent to the Department of Education for ‘national standardisation’.
This is where percentages would be compared with previous years, and this Leaving Cert class’ Junior Cert results, to come up with a final ‘calculated grade’.
If students are unhappy with their grade, and unhappy with their appeal, they will have the option of sitting a written exam later in the year, possibly in November.
U-turn on full marks for orals and practicals
Teachers union ASTI has said that it would be advising its members to “engage” with estimating calculated grades for their students, after the Department of Education confirmed that this would be a once-off system to assess students.
The ASTI has also called on the Department of Education to reinstate full marks for the oral examinations, after a u-turn was made on this decision, and has also asked that students be awarded full marks for practical projects.
This call has been rebutted with the point that if students are given full marks for all orals and practicals, because the Department of Education wouldn’t be able to compare this year’s grades with previous years’ results, which is a necessary part of the grading system.
At 11pm on Friday, the other major teachers’ union, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), said that it had “decided to engage with the system of Calculated Grades outlined by the Minister”.
The TUI said that although written exams were “the clear preference” for the union, that this had “proved to be not possible”. It added that students “have a right to advance to the next stage of their lives”, and a mechanism was needed to do so.
Concerns from the ASTI
After a meeting of the ASTI executive on Friday and at 6pm yesterday, a statement was released after midnight that advised members to engage with the calculated grades system so that students “can progress to the next stage of their lives”.
The ASTI has a policy of teachers not assessing their students for State exams, as it “ensures the integrity of the State Exams process, the value of which is infinitely superior to any other process”.
But, the ASTI also acknowledges that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it “recognises that this year it is necessary to engage with this new process”.
The ASTI has secured confirmation from the Department and the Minister that these measures are being implemented on an emergency basis and will not be regarded as a precedent or an agreement to operate this process in future years.
Despite this, the union still has “a number of major concerns” with the process which it is calling on the Minister for Education and Skills to address as a matter of urgency.
These concerns are:
Following yesterday’s meeting, ASTI president Deirdre Mac Donald said that these were “extraordinary times”.
“This has been a difficult year for our Leaving Cert students and we are very aware of the stress they have endured to date due to this pandemic.
The process outlined by the Minister is far from ideal.
However, we will be striving to improve the process in order to deliver fairness, objectivity, and equity for all students and protect the professional integrity of teachers.
Teachers being lobbied
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme, McDonald said that it is “just unacceptable” that teachers would be lobbied by parents and students.
The fact is that we would have to put in place a protocol around that. The integrity of the system depends on an impartial system being put in place. So, a lobbying protocol will most certainly have been put in place immediately.
Clive Byrne, president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, said that as part of that protocol, it should be “necessary” should be a written note to say if and when a teacher is contacted by a student or parent.
“If somebody is contacted by student or parent and asked in relation to canvassing or grade or other things like that, a written record should be kept.
“And that must be taken on board when the teachers are making their grades and their rankings with the principal.”
He said that lobbying for grades or canvassing “would be completely inappropriate”.
The ASTI said it will be seeking a number of clarifications from the Department of Education and Skills in relation to its concerns. The TUI has also said that it requires clarifications from the Department about the process.
This afternoon, the TUI joined the call for safeguards to protect teachers from any lobbying.
“A protocol that protects teachers from any form of lobbying or canvassing in relation to their role in terms of the system of calculated grades must immediately be introduced by the Department of Education and Skills. The professional integrity and independence of teachers must be protected,” TUI President Seamus Lahart said.
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Deleted my fb account around 6 yr ago. Would never go back on it. If you want me simply ring or text. Cant understand people who put their whole lives online on fb.
@shellakybooky: because humans get insecure and seek out companionship and interactions…SM these days has been wired into people brains via silly sounds via alerts flashing lights etc…..to brake this link is not easy but can be done.
@shellakybooky: The old fashioned media hit out at the new form of media as it is hurting their profits. Politicians hit out at facebook because they are not able to have their relationships and control that they had with our newspapers and the newspaper owners that they have currently.
We can expect a lot more attacks of this type on Facebook over the years as facebook allows people to communicate en-mass and destabilizes the status quo of politicians being in close relationships with those in the media company ownership.
I would trust facebook a hell of a lot more then I would trust our national newspapers or any one in RTE.
@brian boru: I understand what you are saying, probably agree with most of it. BUT it needs to be regulated you can’t have Facebook regulating themselves and then moaning when they make an almighty mess of it.
@brian boru: Naive if you trust Facebook. No social media can be trusted & papers never refuse ink
@PaddyOverABarrel:
Classic……use social media to brag that you don’t use social media!…..
@shellakybooky: same here
@Ger Healy: …news alert – this is not a social media site! lmao
@PaddyOverABarrel: there’s no companionship on Facebook though. It’s anti social media.
@UK Hurling Bloke:
Social Media is not just Facebook or Instagram.
I also deleted my Facebook account a few months ago and don’t miss it at all.
It always puzzled me when people would add you as a friend on fb and then walk past you In the street.
No way I would ever go back
@Alex smith: I remember some ex workmate friended me on facebook. When I started talking to him I got back 2 – 3 word sentences. I mean it was this numpty that friended me and not the other way round ffs. Facebook friends are NOT friends!
@Alex smith: We need less friends and more friendship.
Facebook is a prime example of a company that grew too fast. Normal companies grow steadily for years and the owners and staff have a good handle on it. Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet, and the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.
Companies as large as FB and Google are simply too big, and don’t have the standards in place to begin with. They have to retrospectively introduce policy and standards that most other companies, which developed slowly but surely, have in their DNA.
Not to take way from their incredible success to date and revolutionary product, but I wont be letting my kids near it.
@niall: like A.I.B or …..
@Paul Powell: AIB has 10.5K employees and is 60 years old at this point. .FB has 25K directly employed and many, many more contractors and is barely a decade old. So yeah, grew too fast.
@niall: Yeap, they even said dozens of times we grew to fast too keep up.
@niall: Facebook doesn’t make anything of any note. It’s addicted to advertising revenue which will lead it to ending badly I predict.
He’s looking more and more like data from Star Trek .
@Murph11: he is certainly the archetypal Nerd looking at the photo.
This may be perceived as toxic (6.6/10) apparently, so I’d steer well clear of him
Yet someone burning or tearing up a fictional book such as the Bible or Quran will be immediately banned. Go figure…
@Good Early: Eh????
@Margate: just this week a Pakistani ex-muslim posted a video of himself burning the Qur’an on an Atheist page. It was taken down within the hour.
Got real friends, why would I need fake FB ones?
@Graham: Cos unlike you- the ‘ real thing’, many people act fake anyway in their pretend, little, false worlds..
Are Retail Excellence a newsworthy organisation or is this just an opportunistic PR stunt?
@alphanautica: especially with Lorraine Higgins (failed politician) as their CEO….
@alphanautica: They do represent some 2,000 businesses across Ireland.
@alphanautica: there would be a very ethical ethos there now under the current management. All credit to them for taking this step, but where are all the other organisations that should be doing the same?
@John Mulligan: true, I expect Retail Excellence should release a blacklist of service providers evaluated using the same criteria they have challenged Facebook with.
Will rogue retailers who continue to use Facebook for marketing purposes be released from their annual subscription to Retail Excellence and have their membership and representation cancelled?
Ethics demand it. Retail Excellence should forego any income from such rogues.
@alphanautica: I doubt any organisation has the resources to do something like that. What they did was essentially a statement disassociating themselves from fb’s bad practices. A good step that should be emulated by other groups.
So we will continue to be able to see Paddy and John Paul beat two shades of poo of each other in bare-Knuckle Fights or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWTIf-_SnnA
Surely anyone who sees a serious crime like child abuse has a duty to report it, whether they are an employee or contractor of FB or not?
If the report is made to the Corporate Entity the duty continues, it does not diminish, to the persons within FB and upto the top.
The Gardai or other Police force should be hammering on FB’s door with warrants and axes to get the IP addresses and locations.
Any lawyers or Zuckerbergs that obstruct or stand in their way should be thrown in the back of the wagon, and left there until the more important matter is taken care of by the authorities, politicians have a duty to ensure this happens.
The state should recoup the costs from the “Social Network” and slap punative and exemplary fines on them until they stop making ad money from misery.
Good idea. Wish others would use their brain and do the same.
Pity the Journal wouldn’t follow suit.
Fair play Retail Excellence, hopefully more will follow then FB will finally get its act together.
The man looks like ‘Data’ from Star Trek..
I find FB great for keeping in touch with extended family and also for news and special interests science pages etc.
@Mark Fitzmaurice: Likewise FB finds you great for providing them with detailed information about your family, their and your network of associates, political persuasion, special interests, family photos, WiFi passwords, contacts, what you’ve been watching on Netflix, what books you like to read etc. etc. etc.
He is definately one of the lizard people.
have your say