Towards a Better Future
A Review of the Irish School System John Coolahan | Sheelagh Drudy Pádraig Hogan | Áine Hyland | Séamus McGuinness
A Review of the Irish School System
John Coolahan | Sheelagh Drudy Pádraig Hogan | Áine Hyland | Séamus McGuinness
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<strong>Towards</strong> a <strong>Better</strong> <strong>Future</strong>: A Review of the Irish School System<br />
formation of the faculties) is the immediate<br />
object of the secondary school’. The Council<br />
considered that ‘a well-balanced course of<br />
general education is one having humanist and<br />
other subjects as its basic core, the balance being<br />
in favour of the humanist group’. In general, the<br />
tone of the report of the Council of Education<br />
was uncritical and self-satisfied and suggested<br />
that there was no great need to reform the<br />
curriculum at either junior or Senior Cycle. At<br />
a time when free second-level education had<br />
become the norm in other European countries,<br />
the report dismissed the suggestion that such a<br />
reform be implemented in Ireland, describing<br />
free secondary education for all as ‘utopian’.<br />
“<br />
At a time when free<br />
second-level education had<br />
become the norm in other<br />
European countries, the report<br />
dismissed the suggestion<br />
that such a reform be<br />
implemented in Ireland,<br />
describing free secondary<br />
education for all as ‘utopian’.<br />
”<br />
Remarkably, the Council refuted any suggestions that there was a lack of co-ordination between the<br />
curriculum of the primary and secondary schools stating that ‘we cannot admit that (this allegation)<br />
has any substance ...’ (Department of Education, 1962).<br />
Investment in Education Report, 1965<br />
Within a very short period, however, the findings of the report of the Council of Education were<br />
challenged by the Investment in Education report (Department of Education, 1965). The report<br />
raised questions about the functionality of the education received by some pupils at primary level,<br />
and highlighted the limited nature of the curriculum of Irish secondary schools which it referred<br />
to as a ‘classical grammar-school type’. It showed the relatively low number of students (especially<br />
girls) taking science subjects and the low number of boys taking modern languages. In the context<br />
of a country that was hoping to develop its international industrial and business focus, the findings<br />
of the Investment in Education report indicated that curriculum reform would have to be a priority.<br />
The numbers of pupils in second-level education increased significantly following the introduction<br />
of free second-level education in 1967 – within less than ten years second-level enrolment in Ireland<br />
had increased from 148,000 in 1966/7 to 239,000 in 1974 (Coolahan, 1981, p.195). While some<br />
individual syllabi were reformed in the 1970s, some vocational schools began to offer the<br />
Intermediate, and Leaving Certificate programmes after the introduction of free education, it was<br />
not until the 1980s, that a fundamental review of second-level curriculum was undertaken.<br />
The New Primary School Curriculum, 1971<br />
The new primary school curriculum of 1971 was drafted by a committee of inspectors in the late<br />
1960s and revised syllabi for individual subjects were piloted in various schools throughout the<br />
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