asked the Minister for Education if he is aware that some secondary school managers favour certain optional subjects on the curriculum, e.g., Latin, by allocating to the teaching of such subjects considerably more time than is allocated to the teaching of compulsory subjects, e.g., Irish; and if he proposes to take steps to prevent such discrimination.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Secondary School Curriculum.
I am not aware that any undue discrimination is made in secondary schools as between the time devoted to subjects such as Latin and the time devoted to, say, Irish. The time-tables of the schools, based on the syllabuses as set forth in the official regulations, are drawn up by the managers, and while no specific minimum of teaching time is prescribed for any subject, the adequacy of the arrangements made in these timetables for the teaching of each individual subject is considered by the Department's inspectors, having regard to the circumstances of the particular school or the particular class.