The President of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland has said it is heartening to hear that many students have signed up to sit Leaving Certificate exams so far.
Speaking at the ASTI Annual Convention Ann Piggott said her union are glad that a Leaving Cert is being held with second components.
She said they had continually asked for adaptations to exam papers to offer choice and reduce strain, stress, anxiety and workload for students in the Leaving Cert this year.
The changes made are helpful in doing so, she said, and should encourage students to sit exams.
Ms Piggott said that the Leaving Cert corrections will be standardised and every exam will be marked relative to each other, from a marking scheme which will be used uniformly by all examiners.
She said that no one shall be unfairly brought down, in calculating results and a proper appeal mechanism is available.
But she said that the Accredited Grades Model, also offered, is not an option favoured by them.
She said that they would only have liked to see it used as a last option contingency in the pandemic.
Results will be compiled with no uniform schemes, she said, in different ways, using diverse standards in separate schools.
She said that subsequent standardisation may lead to school results being readjusted downwards
Ms Piggott also described changes to the vaccination roll out as "a brutal and sudden kick in the teeth for teachers and other public sector workers".
Earlier the ASTI convention heard that marginalised children have become even more disproportionately disadvantaged during the pandemic.
The Chair of the ASTI Education Committee, Edel Farrell, said teachers have witnessed a high level of disengagement during the time the schools were closed.
She said this was partially due to the digital divide that exists throughout the country.
Ms Farrell said the pandemic has had a negative impact on all students - home and life structures have been turned upside down, parents have lost jobs and pupils have experienced greater levels of anxiety.
She said these are factors that have left marginalised learners "becoming even more disproportionately disadvantaged".
Mr Farrell said that for those working in Deis schools, closure has had a negative impact on these students in particular. A lot of students will have regressed and struggle to re-engage.
She said that while supports were made available, for some learning was not a priority and it was very easy for students to disengage.
Advances in numeracy and literacy could be reversed and this would "probably only become apparent" with the publication of standardised test scores.
Ms Farrell told the ASTI convention that the Department of Education had issued a schools with a document called 'Guidance on Continuity of Schooling' in January - supporting students at risk of educational disadvantage.
But she said no additional funding or supports were provided with the publication and that schools - particularly those in the Deis programme - need supports now.
She said in March, the Minister announced measures to tackle educational disadvantage and stated that an extra €150 million would be spent on students- but these supports will not come into effect until September.
A delegate at the Convention said the profession is losing its "best and brightest young people" because of casualisation of teaching.
Chris Hind was speaking on a motion calling to combat the increased casualisation of the teaching profession, and that contracts for all part-time and newly qualified teachers should be for a minimum of 12 hours 40 minutes.
Speaking on the motion, Ruth Coppinger said that it is not a new problem. She said it has been happening for at least two decades.
She said since then there had been the introduction of two-tier pay to make it even worse for people who did get jobs.
The ASTI convention also heard a motion to adopt a policy of maximum class size of 24 students for general subjects and a maximum class size of 20 for all practical subjects.
Proposing the motion, Deirdre MacDonald said she hadn't mentioned the 'C' Word yet - the Covid. But the pandemic had certainly "elucidated the need for a smaller class size and a larger space in which to move" students about.
Sandra Fay, who works in a Deis school, said that her average class size is 27.
Andrew Phelan said class sizes had been discussed for 10 years and "they needed to do something about it now".
Meanwhile, ASTI convention earlier carried a motion proposing that it seek to negotiate payment for teaching work carried out by student teachers during their Postgraduate Master of Education course.
Proposing the motion, Ciara Kinsella said that, in the case of student teachers, there is no pay for placement work. It is "essentially free labour".
Other motions adopted by ASTI delegates include a demand that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment includes depth of treatment and range of subject knowledge, in the design template of all future Leaving Certificate specifications, including those currently under development.
It also adopted a second motion that the ASTI receives an assurance that a full and comprehensive review of the implementation of the Junior Cycle framework be undertaken and published by an independent educational body prior to any further changes being proposed and/or implemented at Senior Cycle.
INTO calls for further reform of pregnancy leave
Members of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) have supported a motion at their annual congress, which calls for further reform of pregnancy and reproductive health-related leave.
At a virtual congress, primary school teachers have directed the INTO's Central Executive Committee to negotiate with the Department of Education to ensure that no certified pregnancy-related absence can be counted towards ordinary sick leave or affect pay entitlements and that any appointments for assisted reproduction appointments should be fully substitutable.
While the INTO members acknowledged "the progress which has been made on reproductive health for members", their motion "condemns the fact that the Department of Education considers that miscarriage is not a pregnancy related leave issue".
The issue of reproductive health-related leave has been a notable topic for education staff, with a motion calling for statutory reproductive health leave passed by INTO members at their 2019 Congress.
This was in keeping with regular calls from the INTO for a reproductive health leave scheme to support members managing early miscarriage, fertility treatments and other reproductive health related matters during the school year.
