This is to let you know that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has posted details on its website here of revised arrangements for the completion of Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs) for the cohort of students currently coming to the end of their 2nd Year (2019/20). These revised arrangements are on foot of the disruption to their learning caused for these students by the Covid-19 pandemic and the desire to avoid an excessive assessment burden in 2020/21.  A summary of the revised arrangements include:

1. Extension of the deadline for completion of CBA 1s into the first term of the school year 2020/21, while also allowing for the possibility that some teachers and schools may wish to, and be able to, complete them before the end of the current term.

2. Removal of the requirement for students currently in second year of Junior Cycle to complete two CBAs in each subject, to a requirement to complete just one CBA in each subject. Students will be required to complete an Assessment Task in respect of whatever CBA they complete.

3. The school management and its teachers, in discussion where feasible with students, will choose the one CBA to complete for each subject. However, there will be some exceptions to this choice:

–          To ensure assessment of oral communications skills, students must complete CBA 2: Communicative Task in Irish, and CBA 1: Oral Communication in Modern Foreign Languages.

–          As they are linked in each case with the final examination in the subject, students studying Visual Art, Home Economics, and Music must complete CBA 2.

These arrangements will also be set out in the Junior Cycle circular for 2020/21 which will be published during the summer.