Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
THE BACKGROUND
The abolition of the Primary Certificate in 1967 and the introduction of a new primary
curriculum in 1971 opened the way for a different quality of educational experience in Ireland’s
primary schools; different both from the official ‘cultural nationalist’ emphasis that had prevailed
in the era since independence and the ‘traditional didactic’ emphasis of the era before
independence. The 1971 curriculum was largely devised by the Inspectorate of the Department
of Education. Not all primary teachers embraced at once its central idea that children were to
become more active participants in their own learning. By the time the revised primary
curriculum of 1999 was in preparation, however, Ireland’s primary teachers had in the main
become practitioners of more experiential forms of teaching and learning. The ultimate authors
of the 1999 curriculum could be said to be primary teachers themselves, through their heavy
representation on the syllabus committees of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
(NCCA) that produced the draft curricula for approval by the Minister for Education. As the
appendices for the curriculum handbooks show, moreover, almost all of the committees were
chaired by primary teachers (Department of Education, 1999). The advisory and support services
for the 1999 curriculum were also very largely staffed by primary teachers. This historic shift of
emphasis at primary level from exam-led teaching to a focus on the quality of the students’
educational experiences is not, however, a fully-accomplished project. Perhaps it can never be. As
will be reviewed later, work remains to be done on enhancing teachers’ professional capacities in
a number of respects to promote such higher quality educational experience among students.
It can fairly be said that the major shift that has
taken place in the cultures of teaching and
learning at primary level has not been mirrored at
post-primary level. That is not to say that there
have not been serious efforts to bring about such
a shift (see Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of this review). In
launching the Junior Certificate programme in
September 1988, the then Minister for Education,
Mary O’Rourke, voiced her anticipation that the
kinds of educational experiences which were
now a central feature of primary education would
follow through into second-level. There are many
“
It can fairly be said that
the major shift that has taken
place in the cultures of
teaching and learning at
primary level has not been
mirrored at post-primary level.
”
reasons why this did not happen and these are reviewed in Chapters 3 and 4. Chief among these
reasons has been a reluctance among post-primary teachers over more than three decades to accept
changes in curriculum and assessment that would give them a role in assessing the work of their own
students for certification purposes.
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