Education Minister: No plans to grant special core status to more Junior Cert subjects
The Minister of Education has no plans to grant other subjects, like Geography or STEM subjects, special core status following his decision to embed History in the Junior Cert curriculum.
This week, Minister Joe McHugh announced the subject is to receive a special status in the reformed Junior Cert curriculum from next September.
This followed a review by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), commissioned by the Minister, that recommended no immediate changes to the reformed Junior Cert framework.
While History was only ever mandatory in roughly half of all secondary schools, changes to the framework saw just three subjects (English, Irish and Maths) retain their compulsory status.
“I think there has been a perception that History was being downgraded and obviously I had to address that head-on," Minister McHugh said.
"The statistics are still pretty high, 97% of schools are providing history at Junior Cert and 90% of students are participating in the History curriculum, but my fear, in the long run, would be that this could see a reduction.”
The NCCA was prepared to review the reforms again in two years time, he added. “But I wasn’t prepared to wait two years to do this review on the optional nature.”
Protecting history won’t damage the reformed Junior Cert curriculum, Mr McHugh said.
When asked if he plans to grant special core status to other subjects, Minister McHugh said: “I have no plans to do any review of any other subjects."
"This was a commitment to History and I think context has to be looked at very, very closely here; Where we are at and even the discussion we had in Cabinet (on Tuesday) around the Budget, and around a potential No-Deal Brexit.
"We are living in a time where people are afraid, there is an outlook there of pessimism and certainly from speaking to the young people in the classroom, they have been very creative and proactive in an outward-looking way.”
He said he believes making History a core subject is key to supporting a recent spike in student activism. "In order for us to shape that future, History is key to that.”
While climate change is the “subject of the day”, there is enough flexibility and room within the new Junior Cert curriculum to accommodate teaching of the subject, according to the Minister.
Mr McHugh also confirmed that he has sought the support of the NCCA to devise a new structure for the Junior Cert framework.
When asked if the ‘special core status’ granted to History gives it the same status as the core Junior Cert subjects, the Minister said: “This will be the work now required of the NCCA.
"At the moment we have Irish, English, Maths and Wellbeing. Wellbeing is a must-study subject so I am looking at including History in that same (way) so that every student who enters Junior Cert must study History.”
Meanwhile, the upcoming Budget is going to be a different type, the Minister warned. "It's going to be a Brexit budget based on unfortunately a No-Deal Brexit, that's the collective responsibility that we all have."
