Billy Timmins
Question:67 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, to issue a directive prohibiting the teaching of reading to junior infants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11716/00]
Written Answers. - Early Childhood Education.
The new primary school curriculum for English has been issued to all schools, and during this school year all primary school teachers have undertaken an in-career course in regard to its implementation.
It is a fundamental principle of the curriculum in English that the child's language competence, attention span, concentration and perceptual abilities should be well developed before being introduced to a formal reading scheme. Consequently, much of the English programme in the child's first year at school will be devoted to oral language and informal reading activities that introduce pupils to print in the environment and to books that are interesting, exciting and pleasurable.
A basic principle of the curriculum is to cater for individual differences. Pupils' states of readiness for reading vary significantly and teachers are advised to evaluate the readiness of individual pupils and match the teaching of reading to pupils' abilities and needs. Pupils differ and it would not be appropriate to issue a directive prohibiting the teaching of reading to all junior infants.
It is important that schools explain their policies on the implementation of the reading programme to parents so that they are aware of the range of individual differences in pupils and of the necessity to use different approaches to suit individual children.