Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 May 2022
184. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Education the number of pilot or network schools are trialling the updated leaving certificate curriculum; the way these schools were identified; if there was a set of criteria required for schools to be included in the pilot scheme; if she will provide a list of the schools already identified; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23798/22]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, on 29 March I announced an ambitious programme of work for a reimagined Senior Cycle of education where the student is at the centre of their Senior Cycle experience.
The three tenets of Senior Cycle reform are to:
- Empower students to meet the challenges of the 21st century
- Enrich the student experience and build on what’s strong in our current system
- Embed well-being and reduce student stress levels
Introducing significant change at Senior Cycle needs to be thought through carefully and it is essential to ensure that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), State Examinations Commission (SEC), the Department and schools can work through the changes with all stakeholders over a sustained period of time.
I have requested the NCCA to invite a selection of schools, representative of the different types and sizes of schools across Ireland, to become “network schools”. In order to successfully deliver on the vision I have set out, we need to partner with schools to trial, evaluate, learn, adjust and succeed.
Network schools will be given the opportunity to participate at an early stage in revised curriculum and assessment arrangements. These schools will receive support through a variety of forms to enable their participation. The network school approach will allow the curriculum and assessment arrangements to be co-constructed with students and their teachers allowing specific aspects of these proposals to be progressed and evaluated.
It will be important to carefully manage this work so that students in these schools, or in other schools, would not be disadvantaged in any way and this will be an important consideration during the delivery phase of the reforms I have announced.
The process for the selection of network schools is currently under consideration by the NCCA.
