Ms Breda Naughton:

Yes, they are starting at 2 p.m. I take it the committee members have read the submission so I will highlight key points from the submission. In October 2012, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, published the framework for the junior cycle. Today the Department, at the committee's request, wishes to concentrate on the impact the implementation of the framework for junior cycle will have on the learning and teaching of history. Through comparing education internationally, it has been found that in high performing education systems such as New Zealand, Queensland and Finland, schools have been given greater autonomy and flexibility in the programmes they offer. When schools in Ireland are implementing the new junior cycle, they too will have the autonomy and flexibility to design programmes within the parameters of the framework, mindful in particular of the needs of their students and their teaching resources.

Currently, only 52% of post-primary schools - the voluntary secondary schools to which Ms Crowley referred - are obliged to provide history and geography as core subjects yet over 90% of the students who sit the junior certificate examination enter the examination for history. There are currently more than 5,500 students who do not present for history in the junior certificate examination. Schools across all sectors offer history because they have sufficient numbers of qualified teaching personnel in this area and sufficient interest from students. History teachers attract students to their subject through their love and passion for history and by engaging the natural curiosity of their students in, for example, the lives of people, the origins of the modern world and objects and documents from the past. History is the fifth most popular subject in the junior certificate examination.

The framework will be implemented on a phased basis from September 2014. For the first time, from September 2017, history will be established as a discrete subject. It is currently linked to geography, as outlined in the rules and programme for secondary schools. New specifications for history will be developed by the NCCA and will involve consultation with the key stakeholders and the public. It is hoped the new specifications will facilitate the development of skills, including critically interpreting a range of texts, communicating, working with others, critical thinking and managing information, particularly through the use of digital technology.

As they are designing the new junior cycle programmes, schools will have to be mindful not only of the principles and key skills but also of the 24 statements of learning specified. These statements describe what students should know, understand, value and be able to do at the end of junior cycle. The key statement for history is that every student values local, national and international heritage, understands the importance of the relationship between past and current events and the forces that drive change. For schools, their teachers and their students, the reality of the statement will mean a study of history predominantly as a subject and, for some, they may have the option of studying a short course. In larger schools, some classes could have history as a full subject for certification and some could have short courses, perhaps for certification but also for non-certification purposes.

The minimum time allocated for subjects such as history will be 200 hours or the equivalent of three 40-minute periods per week over three years. For many schools, this will lead to an increased time provision for history and will allow not only for a deepening of a student's historical knowledge but also of his or her ability to analyse, interpret, write and develop historical skills more thoroughly. It will also allow for a greater understanding of how historians work. Short courses, on the other hand, will be designed for 100 hours and will provide an alternative option for other students, perhaps for the equivalent of the 5,500 students who do not study history currently. Short courses could address local history, aspects of women's history, industrial history or the particular interest at the moment in the decade of centenaries.

A number of attempts have been made to modernise the 1989 junior cycle history syllabus. In 1996, the syllabus was revised and there was a significant reduction in content. In the mid-2000s, a further revision was considered but not implemented due to the prioritisation of the overhaul of the junior cycle programme itself. This overhaul led to the publication of the framework last October. None of the revisions to date have gone as far as many teachers and other subject experts would like. In many respects, more modernisation has been achieved in leaving certificate history than at junior cycle. A revised leaving certificate syllabus, first examined in 2006, has placed greater emphasis on source handling, key concepts, personalities and case studies, on social, economic and scientific developments, as well as on matters political and military, student choice and independent research.

The implementation of the framework presents an opportunity to recast junior cycle history as a vibrant, student-centred and valuable subject with significant emphasis on the relevance of past experiences to our lives today. New approaches are likely to provide a host of new opportunities, in history and elsewhere, for students to carry out group or individual project work, including designing tasks, making oral presentations, undertaking field trips, using ICT for research and presenting reports. The new approach is about quality learning, teaching and assessment and will not, I hope, be based on quantitative learning. It will be about learning to learn and learning to think. It will highlight the role of assessment for learning throughout the three years. Assessment for certification will be at a common level. The differentiation will be evident in the learning experiences and in the aspirations and expectations for students. The bar will be raised as the highest grade of achievement with distinction will require a mark greater than 90% , compared with the current 85% for an A grade. This does not mean a dumbing down of content. On the contrary, it is about giving our young people the knowledge, skills and values that will enable them to understand and appreciate history and historians. There will be a dedicated programme of continuing professional development provided to history teachers to enhance their skills and confidence. That CPD will commence in autumn 2016, a year before the new specifications are implemented.

The implementation of the framework provides a new opportunity to recast history as a vibrant, student-centred and valuable subject with significant emphasis on the relevance of past experiences on our lives today and into the future. It is expected that students' experiences of the new junior cycle history will provide an excellent base for students considering taking history at senior cycle and impact positively in the future on the take-up of history at senior cycle.

The role of history in the new junior cycle will be balanced against the contribution of the other subjects, the new short courses and other learning experiences in enabling students to engage with a broad and enriched junior cycle programme that meets the requirements of the 24 statements of learning. It is the totality of the three-year junior cycle experience that each young person receives that will be important as they progress through junior cycle and continue on to senior cycle and thereafter.