Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 June 2004
93 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Education and Science when he expects to receive the report of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment on the leaving certificate and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19483/04]
View answer141 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Education and Science when the review of the existing transition year and senior cycle will be completed and if future deliberations will examine the possibility of adding elements of the transition year into three-month modules within the junior cycle. [19589/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 141 together.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has carried out a comprehensive public consultation process on the future direction of senior cycle education in Ireland. This concluded with the publication by the NCCA of "Directions for Development — Developing Senior Cycle Education", which was presented at a national forum in Dublin Castle on 23 September 2003. This forum was attended by representatives of all the partners in education.
The NCCA proposals set out a vision for the type of school system which might exist by 2010. The proposals envisage a restructured senior cycle curriculum consisting of transition units, short courses and subjects. Innovatory features of the leaving certificate vocational programme and the transition year programme would be incorporated into transition units that would focus on areas such as work related learning, special studies, community participation, arts education, ICT literacy and study skills.
The option of a two or three year cycle would be retained and the leaving certificate applied programme would continue as a discrete programme. All pupils, including LCA pupils, would follow at least one transition unit and many pupils would take a greater number. The proposals provide also for an increased emphasis on a wider range of modes of assessment such as practical, portfolio or project work and continuous assessment, with assessment events spread out during courses of study and available at a number of points during the two-or three-year cycle. As the innovatory features of the transition year programme are being retained, there are no plans to provide for inclusion of elements of the programme within the junior cycle.
Publication of "Directions for Development" has been followed by further analyses and consultation by the NCCA in the lead-up to the council's presentation of advice and recommendations to me on the future of senior cycle. I met representatives of the NCCA on 16 June 2004 to discuss the broad outline of its proposals and the written initial advice that has been approved by the NCCA council will be submitted to me formally in the coming days. The advice will be in two stages. While the first stage will be overview advice, the second will include an elaboration of the possible configuration of subjects, short courses and transition units, details of how assessment might be managed, an analysis of the implications for staff development and infrastructure and a detailed action plan for implementing the proposal. This advice is due at the end of the current calendar year.
The NCCA's overview advice proposes that the existing senior cycle will continue until 2007. Over the period 2005 to 2007, extensive actions are planned to rebalance subjects to reduce content and allow more time for embedding of core skills, to develop transition units and short courses and to implement practical bottom-up pilots in schools to develop models of practice and assess implications. It is envisaged that by 2007, junior cycle would commence for new students in year 1 and they would be ready to begin the restructured senior cycle in autumn 2010.
