A problem for the ASTI is that by withdrawing from the consultation process it runs the risk of being cast as a dinosaur. Its action raises questions: Is the union holding up progress? Are second-level teachers doing young people a disservice by refusing to allow classroom-based assessment to take place at Junior Cert level? In fairness to the union, it has been involved on a regular basis in National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) discussions on assessment. Indeed, some ASTI members are already assessing their own pupils for the Leaving Cert construction-studies and agricultural-science exams. ASTI officials, too, were members of the most recent junior-cycle review committee and of the working group set up by Mary O'Rourke in 1991 to report on how an extended range of assessment techniques could be applied to the Junior Cert. The working group recommended the continuation of external written exams and the inclusion of school-based oral, aural, practical, project work and assignments in the final assessment. Given that a substantial number of teachers were opposed to assessing their own pupils, the working group suggested that assessment marks for State certification should be awarded at school level.

According to Bernadine O`Sullivan, president of the ASTI, the union has withdrawn from the consultative meetings for a number of reasons. The 75 schools which have been invited to participate in the consultative process are unrepresentative of the school population, she says. Some 40 voluntary secondary schools, 25 VEC schools, seven community schools, two community colleges and one comprehensive school have been selected. "There are 750 second-level schools and the voluntary secondary sector is the largest group," she explains. "The Department has decreed that only 75 schools would be selected and that excludes the others." Schools have been asked to send four representatives to the regional meetings: the principal or nominee, two teachers and a parent representative. "In the NCCA review only principals were surveyed and they were largely in favour of school-based assessment," she says.

If teachers and principals from the same schools attend some teachers may fear that by speaking their minds and opposing their principals' views, they will harm their future career prospects.

The Points Commission meetings, which were held in the evenings and were open to everyone, provided a better forum, she asserts. The ASTI is also concerned about the timescale involved. The Department's discussion document was only received on September 15th. Ten days later, the list of schools invited to attend the consultative meetings was distributed. "Members were being asked to go to meetings and some of them hadn't even seen the document," O'Sullivan says. The real problem, though, lies in what O' Sullivan calls "the substantive issue" - school-based assessment. Teachers fear that if they are required to assess their own students, they will be put under pressure by students and parents. They're worried, too, about the perception of fairness. "In a small town, if the bank manager's daughter gets eight As and the plumber's daughter gets eight Cs, there could be a perception that teachers were more favourably disposed towards one student," she says. "Students need to know that they will be assessed externally and that their teachers are advocates, not judges."

A paragraph in the discussion document is of particular concern to the ASTI. The reduced emphasis on terminal written exams, it states, may result in shorter written exams and single exams instead of two in some instances. "It may even, in some cases, mean the replacement of terminal written examinations with new and different forms of assessment." The union fears that this could mean that only some subjects will be externally assessed - which could give rise, O'Sullivan says, to some subjects being regarded as more prestigious than others. O'Sullivan rejects the view that ASTI members are stick-in-the-muds. "The ASTI is the most reforming group of people in the country," she says. "However, the most constructive thing we can do at this juncture is to consolidate all the many educational changes that have taken place in recent years and get proper resources for them."

The Department of Education and Science and the ASTI have already met and as Education & Living goes to press, the ASTI is reporting back to the standing committee. Meanwhile, regional meetings are being rescheduled and the Department awaits the ASTI's response.