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

I thank Deputy McLoughlin for raising the issue. I will clarify a number of things. It is not a pilot scheme; it is phase one of a model that will go countrywide from 2020. It is a testing of a concept that has been developed by the NCCA of a new physical education curriculum, both an examinable curriculum at leaving certificate and also a framework for students who choose not to do the exam. It was not a contest to select the best schools in the country for a pilot scheme. It was, by contrast, a need the Department identified in order to make sure the programme is delivered to the highest possible standard to get a range of schools across a range of different needs, including DEIS and non-DEIS schools, single sex and mixed sex schools, small and large schools and so on. It was not a contest to select schools with particularly strong sporting traditions and put them into a pilot scheme to demonstrate the excellence of the project. Instead its purpose was to prove the concept and to have schools that are perhaps not as strong or do not have as great a tradition and to have a mixture of schools. I assure the Deputy that we aim to provide it on a nationwide basis in September 2020. It is one cycle of students going through the programme to complete the leaving certificate senior cycle.

As the Deputy indicated, it was massively oversubscribed. We had 369 applications for 80 places. There is a huge appetite for this. It is something we are really keen to get right. The two years between this coming September and the nationwide delivery will be used to make sure we deliver quality continuing professional development to prepare teachers to deliver the programme with the new curriculum and the new examination model. The way it is being done is very exciting - video material is being included as part of the examination process. It is a period in which we are proving the concept, which is extremely strong. The design was done entirely independently by a steering group set up - it was chaired by my Department - to ensure we got the best test to prove the concept and make sure we ironed out all the glitches that might occur in the delivery of a curriculum such as this. It is an exciting new project. I assure the Deputy there was no ill-reflection of any applicant. There were wonderful applications we were not in a position to include in the first phase but which will be included when we go countrywide with the project.

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