Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This will be a significant improvement. There is already a 90% take-up of history at junior cycle level. The current curriculum is massively overcrowded and terribly text based. It is about memory retention for an exam, rather than what Deputy Bríd Smith or I would regard as the sort of skill and experience of history we ought to be encouraging. Inspectors have shown that many children doing exam papers do not exhibit the sort of skill level one would hope history would provide. The new curriculum will encourage students to use alternative sources for finding out about history and to develop local projects. For example, they could examine the development of TB in Dublin. It will try to give them critical skills such as appraising what history was about in terms of what happened at a particular time. That is a fitting approach to take.

I agree that some people have expressed concern that we would see a drop off in the take-up but I am confident that is not the case. As I said, the uptake is currently 90%, which is higher than compulsory Irish. It is only compulsory in 52% of schools. There is a major welcome for the subject. It is number five in the subject rankings and ten subjects will be chosen. There will be a stand-alone 200 hours for history and on every front, this will be an improvement. It will encourage continuity in terms of how history is treated in primary school and how it will be dealt with at senior cycle. I am very positive about the new curriculum that will evolve.

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