Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Professor MacCraith would probably know my feelings about this. I am not resistant to it. It is highly creative and imaginative and it is something we must do. I agree with everything Deputy Cannon and all the participants said about this. However, in doing this we must always uphold the arts within it. We have decimated them in primary and secondary schools and at third level. They are integrated subjects, not independent subjects. We give points for mathematics but not for music. They are equally important. The development of online learning must consider the arts to be paramount in how they progress as well. It does not only apply to subjects such as physics, mathematics and biotechnology. That would be my wish. It is also my wish that the arts be reinstated for what they are on secondary and primary school curricula. It happens in the universities anyway because there are student societies. They also have music, drama and dance departments. However, somehow in the secondary schools they have ceased to be the most important educators, which I believe they are, along with all the other learning. The marrying of that is terribly important for the future.