Towards a Better Future

Chapter Three: Curriculum
While school-based curriculum development and teacher-led syllabi may well be appropriate at
primary school level and at Junior Cycle in second-level, as far as this author is aware, all centrallyadministered
national examination systems at the end of Senior Cycle schooling, especially in those
countries where universities accept the final-year national examination for selection and admissions
purposes, provide detailed subject syllabi and assessment guidelines which are not confined merely
to topics and learning outcomes. This author holds that it is not sufficient to describe the
requirements of a national high-stakes examination syllabus in terms only of topics and learning
outcomes. More detailed information about the depth of treatment of subjects and the requirements
for examination will need to be provided at national level to bring the new Leaving Certificate
curriculum into line with international good practice and to ensure that it will be of a sufficiently
high standard to be acceptable to the university sector.
It would be desirable that the NCCA development groups for the various subjects continue to be
actively engaged in the detailed development of the subject specification, including clarification of
the level and depth at which topics should be taught; providing exemplars of good practice in the
teaching of the subject; drafting of sample examination questions etc. It makes little sense to bring
together a highly expert development group to draft the (minimal) subject specification, and not to
use their expertise to oversee the follow-on development of the specification. While suggestions
and resources provided by classroom teachers regarding implementation of the subject specification
are undoubtedly valuable, the expertise of the higher education sector and of researchers who are
at the cutting edge of developments in the subject is essential to ensure that revised Leaving
Certificate subject syllabi are up-to-date and take account of the most recent research in the subject.
Under the current approach, the process of
reviewing and revising Leaving Certificate
syllabi is long-drawn out and protracted. In the
case of the revised Leaving Certificate syllabi for
Physics, Chemistry and Biology, for instance, the
process began in 2007 and is not yet complete.
It is likely to be at least another three years
before the new syllabi are approved and
implemented nationally. The new Politics and
Society syllabus has been in gestation for almost
a decade and is being implemented (for the first
“
Under the current approach,
the process of reviewing and
revising Leaving Certificate
syllabi is long-drawn out and
protracted.
”
time) in a selected number of schools this year (2016-17). While precipitated and overly-rushed
reform of syllabi is clearly undesirable, it is important that the process is not so protracted as to
militate against regular modernisation and updating.
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