Ms Danielle Gayson:

With regard to CSPE and history at second level, I am only in transition year and cannot speak for leaving certificate history. I can say, however, that for junior certificate, we only came up as far as the Second World War. The course focused mainly on the wars, the Renaissance and Irish history. For CSPE, most schools have a class once a week and, even at that, teachers sometimes do not know they will be teaching it until the students come in and sit down with their books. How can we expect young people to learn about issues like Europe and the EU when teachers are given no notice they will be giving the lessons? CSPE needs to be reformed. At the very least, we must ensure teachers are trained to teach it in a more consistent way. Not every school will bring somebody in to discuss a topic; sometimes a project will consist of the class going on a mountain hike, for instance. As part of the CSPE course, time should be allocated to bringing people in to discuss EU issues. That is very important.