Ms Esther Doyle:

Regarding our new subject, I wish to address the Deputy’s question on it being siloed. I will give a few examples already in leaving certificate subjects. For example, in politics and society, which is a relatively recently introduced subject, and physical education, there are aspects that are already related to what the Deputy mentioned in respect of looking at sustainability and how we contribute to supporting the environment we live in. This will not be the only subject where the young people of today will be expected to consider these types of important issues. In other subjects, such as home economics, biology and geography, there are very relevant, interdisciplinary, connected issues similar to what we mentioned in the new subject specifications. I hope the students the Deputy mentioned who are expressly interested in the world we will live in the future will not only be drawn to the new subject but will have complementary subjects at leaving certificate level. As we redevelop all of the subjects over the next few years at leaving certificate and senior cycle, there will be opportunities for ESD to be embedded across them all. I take the Deputy’s concern. I would not like them to be the only students in our schools who are seen as the champions or advocates for a better world or climate action. When we visit schools as inspectors, we see the level of interest of young people from first year in post-primary, which is my area, in the world of the future and the world they live in now, and it is endearing.

It also gives me confidence that in the future they will be activists, they will share the responsibility and they will educate. Our beginning position here is that in order to become an activist or to become somebody who can change the world or keep the world better, a person needs to be educated. This new subject will help to support an education in climate action and sustainable development and will help us to empower those young people both through the types of learning they will engage in - the specification - and the type of assessment that is going to be permeating through the two years of this new subject. The assessment will be linked to action. It is not just about rote learning, not that any subject is at leaving certificate, because there will be activity, action and learning tasks that will support the creation of their learning over the two years of senior cycle. I am happy to take more detailed questions, if members would like, on the content or the learning specification. I will leave it at that for now.