Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

To address the other point Senator Mac Conghail raised, there is no issue with the teaching of history. I have stated that view on record for the past 12 years and it has not changed. The subject has been transformed substantially by history teachers. Previous speakers referred to the years they attended college. I am much too old to have been taught by Professor Ferriter but I was taught at college in the 1970s by fantastic historians, including Professor Joe Lee and Professor John A. Murphy. I do not have any memory of studying documents or examining issues such as bias, objectivity, subjectivity and so forth. That is the type of transformation that has been built into the junior certificate to a certain extent. However, we are still struggling as a result of content overload.

I would be happy if the teachers of history present commented on the leaving certificate. My gut feeling from the response I have had from many teachers is that they are much happier with the current leaving certificate syllabus. We are not dumbing down leaving certificate history. While it is still a serious challenge in terms of the writing required, it is a much more doable and a more positive experience for students than the old syllabus. Instead of having to leave the examination room after 3 hours and 20 minutes of writing down everything one knows about five topics, students must now answer three essay-style questions, engage with one documents topic requiring some short answers and do a research study outside the examination setting. While no one denies there is still pressure, there is much less of it in terms of the race against time one had previously. Perhaps members should sit in on a few history lessons to observe the transformation that has been brought about by many of those present - I am not engaging in plámás - in terms of the use of information and communications technology, engagement with primary sources and so forth. We have to turn the junior cycle syllabus for history into a greater opportunity for this to happen when the specifications are drawn up.