Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Mar 1994

Vol. 439 No. 5

Written Answers. - Arts and Culture.

Frances Fitzgerald

Question:

213 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Education her views on the status allocated to arts and culture by the report of the National Convention on Education; the steps, if any, which have been taken by her Department and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht to ensure the further development of arts and culture in the educational arena.

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The Programme for a Partnership Government, which was published in January of last year, makes a commitment to: "broadening the curriculum to foster creativity, critical faculties, political and social awareness, and analytical and problem-solving skills". Arts education is a very key element in this broadening of the curriculum.

I have made continued commitments to the important place of the arts in the education system since I took office. I again take this opportunity to affirm the centrality of the arts within educational policy and provision, and particularly in the period of compulsory schooling. I regard artistic and aesthetic education as key elements within the school experience of young people.

The Department of Education liaises closely in this matter with the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The Report of the National Education Convention endorsed the place of the arts in education and recommended the establishment of a co-operative initiative by the Department of Education, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the Arts Council and representatives of arts teachers associations to consider the place of the arts in Irish education.

I intend to give the fullest consideration to the report on the National Education Convention in the formulation of policy proposals for the White Paper. This is the unequivocal commitment which I have given and I am happy to repeat now.

In the case of primary schools, pupils in all classes are currently exposed to a broad programme in the Visual Arts and Music. As part of the general review of the primary curriculum, the programmes of work in Arts Education, which encompasses the Visual Arts and Music, are being examined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). These revised programmes will be introduced to schools in the near future.

At second level, a new syllabus for Art, Craft and Design was introduced for the Junior Certificate Examination in 1989 and it was examined for the first time in June 1992. The new Junior Certificate Music syllabus was introduced in 1991 and it will be examined for the first time in June this year. In the context of the extensive review of the senior cycle currently being undertaken by the NCCA, new syllabi for both Music and Art will be introduced in schools in 1996 and examined for the first time in 1998.