Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegations. The HTAI has put its case very well. We also have a concern about this. The association mentioned the class divide in terms of how things have developed in England. The one thing which was not mentioned but which is in the submission is the Department's focus on literacy and numeracy and the importance of history and geography in developing them. There are real concerns about the number of students who will not take history. If it is a short course and is an option, the numbers will fall off. We have only to look at what has happened to history and geography in England.

We are not focusing on the impact it could have on the higher education sector because if people are not studying history as a core subject at junior certificate level and at leaving certificate level, the numbers studying it at higher level will decline and it will have a detrimental impact on the area. We should not look at junior certificate reform in isolation because there will be an impact beyond that if this goes ahead. Do the delegates have any figures or research on the impact in England in terms of people going on to higher education and studying history or courses involving history? Ms Breda Naughten said 67,500 students were sitting the history examination today. If this goes ahead, fewer students will take history next year and in subsequent years. We will continue to see a drop in the numbers studying history.

Much of what was contained in her presentation reads well and in theory sounds good but in practice, I do not think it will work. I do not think a short course is sufficient to provide the background students need in terms of their ability to study history. There is an old saying that if one does not learn from the past, history will repeat itself but if this goes ahead, we may not even know if history is repeating itself because people will not know what was the history. The Department is getting it wrong and is over-stating the capacity of short courses to maintain history as a principal subject. Has the HTAI or the Department figures on how it will impact beyond junior certificate level to leaving certificate level and higher education level?