Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is great that Ms Sally Maguire is present as I agree with everything she has said. I think this document is like a magic show. It has 24 statements of learning. That seems to be where it finds its raison d'être. We have lunatic statements from the OECD that underline that teachers have the biggest impact on classroom learning as if that was some kind of new knowledge when it is fundamental. That is where the Department should have begun. Had it begun with that statement, many of the 24 statements of learning would have been contextualised and natural. Many of my colleagues present would agree with that. There is an enormous problem with this because when one digs down, one is at Mr. Magic, so to speak. Ms Maguire is right about the school capacities and capabilities, depending on where they are, the assessment and certification being school-based, the lack of external benchmarks and the lack of consistency. I would ask the same question as my colleague, namely, how far the witnesses have got with those arguments with the Department.

There is a massive problem with this plan, and we are hearing it from all the witnesses today and from the CSPE, PE and the History Teachers' Association - I tabled a Private Members' motion about history in the Seanad - and that is the short course element. Everything is going to be stuffed into a short course.

We will have the core primary subjects, English, mathematics and Irish, and everything else will be a case of us all being at the market together where we must put out our stall. I do not believe middle school pupils, 12 to 15 year olds, are able for short courses. That is a module system that works within universities and with a more mature mind. It does not work for the young mind. Already, short courses within the learning programme are brought into schools by staff.

I agree on the importance of CSPE. More than ever, with the collapse of human rights, we need this subject. I also completely agree we need PE, as we are part of a couch potato society. We produced a committee report on this issue and we could fill Croke Park with children under 14 who are overweight. I cannot express how much I would like to help promote what the witnesses have been saying here today, starting with what has been said by those from the ASTI. There is a fundamental problem with regard to how this curriculum has been magicked into being and with the 24 reasons for living.

The first paragraph should have been about the power and greatness of teaching. The reason we have 1 million young people in further education is because of great teaching, from preschool to university. Subjects must be brought alive by great teaching. I am a product of that system, good or bad as I am. That is the argument we should make first. Then we should move on to the validation and brilliance of the disciplines of knowledge the witnesses are batting for.