Ms Yvonne Keating:

Currently in primary schools and in junior cycle, RSE is delivered as an integral part of the mandatory social, personal and health education, SPHE, programme. In senior cycle, while SPHE is not mandatory, there is a requirement to provide six sessions of RSE each year.

The Senator may be aware of the report on the review of RSE in primary and post-primary schools which was published by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, in 2019. As part of the work arising from this report, a redevelopment and updating of the RSE curriculum is being undertaken within the curriculum development structures in the NCCA. The NCCA has established two development groups, one for primary and one for post-primary, to oversee the work in this area and to support guidance material for schools.

Both the primary and post-primary SPHE and RSE development groups have been meeting virtually on a monthly basis since the groups were convened in October of last year. The immediate focus of the work is to create support materials for teachers for publication online as part of the interim guidance toolkit. This work is progressing well and sections of the toolkit have already been published. In tandem, and in preparation for the broader redevelopment and updating of the SPHE curriculum, as recommended by the NCCA in that report, the initial focus on the redevelopment of the junior cycle SPHE curriculum is under way.