Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In January 2013, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, and I jointly launched the arts in education charter. This charter places new responsibilities on Departments, agencies, cultural institutions and arts organisations to provide and promote arts education to children and young people. The charter will facilitate organisations like the Arts Council, the national cultural institutions, the colleges of education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment working with both Departments in order to bring the arts into the classroom and learners into the institutes for the arts.

A high-level implementation group, chaired by Professor John Coolahan, professor emeritus at NUI Maynooth, was established to oversee the implementation of the arts in education charter. Its membership includes the director of the Arts Council, a representative of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and senior officials from my Department and the Department of Education and Skills. The group has been meeting regularly and has been proactive in meeting organisations from both the arts and education sectors. It presented its first formal report to the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and myself on 3 September 2013 and its second on 9 April 2014.

Progress is being made on a number of initiatives, including engagement with the wider education agenda through participation in key events and conferences; ongoing dialogue with the national cultural institutions, and particularly with the education, community and outreach grouping; engagement on the development of collaborative partnerships between strategic groups such as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and the Arts Council; gathering of information on research that has been undertaken with a relevance to arts education and arts in education; development of a website as a key communications and information channel for both the education and arts sectors; development of proposals for an arts-rich schools scheme to raise interest among school communities in cultivating the arts as a desired feature of school life and for artists to become involved in the programme; and consideration of the best means of providing updated information and guidance on arts-in-education activities. My Department, together with the Department of Education and Skills, plans to hold a joint symposium next month to further contribute to and enhance the engagement and working relationships between the higher education and the arts sectors.

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