The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment recently published the paper Developing Senior Cycle Education: Consultative Paper on Issues and Options. It presents ideas about the future of the senior cycle of post-primary education. The paper is part of a process of consultation through which the NCCA is seeking the views of students, parents, teachers, and other interested individuals and groups, as to how the senior cycle should develop and be shaped into the future.
The senior cycle has been a focus of considerable change and development in the past ten years resulting in the emergence of transition year, the leaving certificate vocational programme and the leaving certificate applied, in addition to the established leaving certificate. The consultative paper, which has been widely distributed, now provides an opportunity to take stock of these and other developments in education as well as in the area of assessment and to engage in an exercise of foresight regarding future developments in senior cycle education.
At the end of the consultation period the NCCA will host a forum entitled "National Forum on Developing Senior Cycle Education: Issues and Options" in the autumn. The forum will report on the findings of the consultation process and signal the directions that the emerging policy paper on senior cycle education is taking. I expect to receive a final draft policy paper from the NCCA for my consideration after that.