Minister must act to restore confidence in Leaving Cert curriculum reform
Minister must act to restore confidence in Leaving Cert curriculum reform - The Labour Party
Labour Education spokesperson Eoghan Kenny TD has called on the Minister for Education to urgently seek assurances from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) following the resignation of two mathematics experts involved in developing the new Leaving Certificate maths curriculum.
Deputy Kenny said:
“The concerns raised by Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin are extremely serious and cannot simply be dismissed as a disagreement about individual elements of a new maths course.
“She is now the second mathematics expert to resign from the development group, following Professor Pauline Mellon earlier this year. When experts involved in developing a national curriculum are raising concerns about mathematical inaccuracies, the removal of important content and the process through which expert advice is considered, the Minister has to take notice.
“I strongly support reform of the Leaving Certificate and our senior cycle. Our curriculum has to evolve to prepare young people for a world increasingly shaped by AI, data, technology and climate change. But reform cannot simply mean removing content or reducing academic rigour.
“There also has to be a proper balance between the expertise of classroom teachers, educationalists and people with deep subject knowledge. All three perspectives matter.
“The Minister should now seek an urgent report from the NCCA setting out how the concerns raised by both experts were dealt with, what mechanisms exist for resolving disagreements over subject content and how subject-matter expertise is represented throughout the curriculum redevelopment process.
“These concerns also cannot be viewed solely through the prism of mathematics. A major redevelopment of Leaving Certificate subjects is underway, including Agricultural Science and other STEM subjects. We need confidence that appropriate subject expertise is at the heart of every one of those processes.
“The draft mathematics curriculum is currently out for public consultation. That consultation must be genuine. Teachers, mathematicians, academics, students and others need to know that raising substantive concerns can actually result in changes.
“This isn’t about stopping Leaving Certificate reform. It’s about getting that reform right.
“We only get one opportunity to design these curricula for the next generation of students. Academic rigour, modern skills and the experience of classroom teachers should complement one another, they should never be treated as competing objectives.”