Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McManus. As a person who has spent my working life until 2011 in the classroom, hers was a name I constantly saw on correspondence. Having often wondered what she looked like, I am delighted to meet her today. Her name was well-known throughout. I was in a second level school. It is good to put a face to the name. I congratulate her ahead of her second term.

My subject was music so I will focus my questions on what I know. In regard to the curriculum for leaving certificate music, are there plans to modernise the course which was last changed in 1999? Part of the change was on music technology, a new section which was introduced to leaving certificate music. When I heard this I was keen to keep up to date when Ms McManus referred to the NCCA engaging with other countries in an attempt to keep it modernised. Given that I was in a Border county, immediately I went North of the Border to see what was being done there in terms of music technology. Up until this year when I had a daughter doing leaving certificate music, it has not changed. The difference between music technology North and South of the Border is phenomenal. The situation has improved since 2011. When I left teaching in 2011, I did not have the Internet in the classroom. Music technology could be used for 50% of the leaving certificate curriculum and the students who did not play an instrument could do it. It is literally an examination in transcribing what is in front of them. They did not need any musical knowledge. The students felt this was the easiest part of the course and it did not give music the recognition of the work needed.

I feel strongly that in the area of music technology for leaving certificate there is huge work to be done to modernise the course. In the North the facilities are much better in terms of music software and the programmes in place. Ms McManus mentioned the volunteers. Who specifically designs these courses? Sometimes there is talk about modernising the courses. When the junior certificate was modernised, the pupils of the 2000s had never heard of the songs which were from the 1960s. They did not have a clue about Paul Simon, the Beatles and some had never heard of Queen. We need to move with the times, particularly in my subject of music, with the music they are listening to. I do not know who is in charge of this area.

In terms of the volunteers which Ms McManus mentioned, it is great to have volunteers. I would love to have had an input into where it was going. I have 25 years experience and a wealth of knowledge, have taught in different schools between vocational and secondary, and I would have been willing to give an input. I wrote to the NCCA offering my services a couple of times but never got a response. It is an area where one should listen to the teachers.

Perhaps Ms McManus would expand on the curriculum for special education. It is a great idea to give students with, say, a mild or moderate intellectual disability the opportunity to get the same start as their peers.