Ms Brigid McManus:

I thank the committee for inviting me to meet it today. I will outline my background and then speak about the work the NCCA has under way and will be undertaking over the next few years.

I worked as a civil servant for more than 34 years and served as Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills from 2005 to 2012. During my Civil Service career I also worked in the Departments of Finance and Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in a variety of policy areas, including public expenditure management, EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, the preparation of the 1994 national development plan, the governance and funding of national cultural institutions, and national and EU tax policy. As Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, my responsibilities covered the full range of issues in the education sector, including curriculum and assessment policy. I have strong experience of corporate governance issues in the public sector. I was appointed chairperson of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, in 2012 and I have served for three years in that role. The appointment being discussed today is for a second term.

The NCCA plays a key role in sustaining and enhancing education quality. Its remit, as the Chairman has said, is to advise on curriculum and assessment. It covers early childhood settings and primary and second level schools. While it does not have a specific role in the higher education sector, it is working closely with that sector and other interested parties on transition issues, particularly in trying to address the interaction of the leaving certificate with higher education entrance requirements, and the impact of those requirements on the secondary school experience.

The council itself is a largely representative structure, with most members appointed by stakeholder organisations. In developing its proposals, it places a strong emphasis on research and evidence, deliberation through specific representative subject specialist groups, widespread consultation, and trialling aspects of new curricula with network schools. While it is not responsible for implementing curricular change, it supports such change through developing support materials and working with those responsible.

Current NCCA work includes a practice guide for early childhood settings on implementing the quality and curricular frameworks, Aistear and Síolta. It also includes a new primary language curriculum for junior primary classes, which has just been finalised, a primary language curriculum for older classes to be finalised by 2018, a new primary maths curriculum, and a curriculum for primary schools in education about religious beliefs, ERB, and ethics. It also includes developing a new overall primary curriculum framework, the new junior cycle, which will be very familiar to committee members andwhich isa major undertaking, including revised curricula for all individual subjects, new short courses, advice on addressing student well-being, new school assessment tasks across all subject areas and new reporting arrangements, including the introduction of the new junior cycle profile of achievement. Our work also includes new senior cycle curricula in economics, agricultural science, applied maths and physical education, introducing a new senior cycle politics and society subject in a number of schools, supporting the trialling of new practical assessment arrangements for leaving certificate science subjects, reviewing the impact of project maths and the new oral arrangements for leaving certificate Gaeilge, and work on the transition to higher education, in particular the new grading arrangements for leaving certificate subjects.

The NCCA is very conscious of the importance of developing coherence across the education continuum and of addressing transition points such as from early childhood to primary, from primary to second level and from second level to higher education, further education or work. There are also sometimes transition points within the school system. Fundamental to the work of the NCCA is that it builds upon and recognises the importance of the classroom and the school as the site of change, the importance of teachers and school management as the principal agents in that change, and the need for the drive for change to be focused on improving the quality of the educational experience for all children and young people.

Our work must address the needs of students of all abilities and backgrounds. It must sufficiently challenge students with high ability in particular subjects and address the needs of both students who are currently disengaging from education and students with special needs. In this context, one example is the work, as part of the junior cycle reforms, on developing new curriculum programmes for students with moderate to mild general learning disabilities and special needs, which will allow their learning to be recognised and awarded for the first time at junior cycle. Increasingly, the NCCA tries to capture the student view in its work and engages with parents in supporting their children's education. For example, the NCCA website includes video clips giving parents suggestions for activities they can do with young children to help support literacy and numeracy skills.

Curriculum policy and advice cannot be addressed on a stand-alone basis. To deliver effectively on its mandate, the NCCA needs to work collaboratively across the sector. It works closely with the Departments of Education and Skills and Children and Youth Affairs, the State Examinations Commission, the Teaching Council and the teacher professional development support services across the range of its work. It also works with the Higher Education Authority, the National Council for Special Education and Quality and Qualifications Ireland on specific areas of work in which our remits overlap. It engages with all the education partners in its own work and other fora. Participating in international networks and research activity ensures the NCCA is up to date with best practice elsewhere.

The work of the NCCA is supported by the huge commitment and input of a large number of volunteers in the NCCA council, by its different subject development and working groups and by the work of its talented and enthusiastic full-time staff. It has been a great privilege to have chaired the council and overseen this important work for the last three years. I and all the members of the new NCCA council are very committed to improving the education experience of all students in the coming years.