NPCpp Conference - continued
NPCpp Conference - continued
By author Paul Mooney President of NPCpp and member of COMPASS Executive
Dr Tomas O Ruairc Director of the Teaching Council the regulatory body for the teaching profession gave us an outline of the work of the teaching Council particularly with respect to registration and vetting of teachers . In his talk he gave a very comprehensive outline of the new complaints procedure concerning teachers in the teaching profession known as PART 5 of the Education Act .
This section of the act has only recently been enacted into law 12 years post the passing of the legislation bringing into existence the Teaching Council and is now operated by the Teaching Council .
Part 5 allows for the bringing forward by anyone of a complaint against named teachers concerning issues that they believe or have reason to believe affect adversely the education and treatment of children in our schools . Further information can be had from the Teaching Council of Ireland ’ s website .
Andrea Feeney from the State Examinations Committee spoke to us on the subject of Reasonable Accommodation .
In the past it was a reasonable conjecture for a parent to make , that all things being equal , should an accommodation be granted to a student at Junior Cycle the same accommodation would be granted at Leaving Certificate level . Unfortunately due to the way the system was set up and operated up to now it was not guaranteed that this would be the case . Some students felt that they had not been treated in a fair manner . Happily the system has been reviewed and the way it will be operated in the future has been revised . Andrea announced that a Reasonable Accommodation granted to offset a disability in relation to the Junior Cycle examinations will also be granted for the senior cycle Leaving Certificate examinations .
More information can be obtained concerning this change by going to the website of the State Examinations Commission . ( SEC )
New Grading System Senior Cycle
Betty McLaughlin President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors also gave a talk on the new Leaving Cert examination grading system which is coming into force this year 2017 .
The reason for the change in the grading system is to help mitigate undesirable effects of the socalled point system . One of these undesirables is the random allocation of a course place where more than the number of qualified students have applied to a finite number of places The central focus of the work that was undertaken was to agree reforms of Leaving Certificate Assessment and Grading and Admissions Processes to higher education .
Betty McLaughlin ( pictured left ) explained that as part of this process it has been agreed to change how the leaving certificate examination are graded using fewer broader grades bands the current 14 point grading scale present for the A1 A2 B1 B2 B3 etc . These will be replaced by grades numerated as H1 to H8 in the higher level and O1 to O8 in the Ordinary level . One can note where the grade bands typically covered 5 % will be replaced by an 8 point scale based on the Grade band of 10 % wide . The revised arrangements will be applied by all universities institute of technology and their linked providers from 2017 . Further information concerning these changes is available at the website www . translate . ie including a frequently asked questions section on what why and how the new grading system will be operated this year .