Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
curriculum was revised in 1900 when payment by results was abolished. From 1900 to 1921, the
Revised Programme gave greater flexibility to schools and encouraged discovery and activity-based
learning (Walsh, 2016).
Following Independence in 1922, the primary school curriculum was significantly reformed to
emphasise the Irish language, Irish culture and Irish history. The child-centred and discovery-based
approach, which had underpinned the curriculum from 1900 to 1921, was abandoned, and in 1922,
the first National Programme was framed on nationalist lines (National Programme Conference,
1922). The range of subjects was reduced (to Irish, English, Mathematics, History, Geography, Singing,
Needlework and Drill) and the content and focus became Irish and Gaelic in orientation. The Irish
language was to be taught to all children for at least one hour a day and the work of the Infant
classroom was to be entirely in Irish. Because of difficulties encountered in the implementation of
the 1922 National Programme, the curriculum was revised in 1926 (National Programme
Conference, 1926). The revisions were relatively minor and the philosophy and much of the content
of the 1922 programme were endorsed. The programme was revised again in 1934 (Department of
Education, 1934) and in 1948, when the Revised Programme for Infants was introduced
(Department of Education, 1948), but the emphasis on Irish language, culture and history remained.
It was not until 1971 that a major review and revision of the primary curriculum took place.
Secondary School Curriculum, 1878 – 1970s
From 1878 until 1924, the Intermediate Board’s
examination system dominated teaching and
learning in Irish secondary schools. Under a
system of payment by results, there was a strong
incentive for secondary schools to adopt the
Board’s examination syllabi. Throughout this
period, there were three levels of examination –
Junior Grade, Middle Grade and Senior Grade,
with a wide range of subjects, and the syllabi for
these subjects at the three grade levels were
prescriptive and content-based (Coolahan,
1981). For some years, a fourth grade,
“
Following Independence in
1922, the primary school
curriculum was significantly
reformed to emphasise the
Irish language, Irish culture
and Irish history.
”
Preparatory Grade, was also available but this grade was discontinued in the early years of the
twentieth century.
Payment by results at post-primary level was abolished in 1924 and new Intermediate and Leaving
Certificate programmes and examinations were introduced. These programmes initially rejected
prescribed texts, and open courses were introduced in language and literature subjects. Examinations
were less predictable, and rote learning of set texts was no longer rewarded. However, following
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