Minister to ignore curriculum body's advice and give history special status
The Education Minister Joe McHugh is pushing ahead with plans to give History special status in the new Junior Cycle.
It will mean that students will have to study the subject up until third year.
At the moment Irish, English and Maths are the only mandatory subjects.
Minister McHugh is going against the advice of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment which thinks history should remain optional.
The Irish Independent reports that the Minister wants history to have a special place in the curriculum by next September and will not await a planned NCCA review in two year's time.
It is understood he is not prepared to risk a fall in the number of students studying history during the two-year period.
While the decision that history will not be optional appears to have been made, the exact future status has yet to be determined.
