Fiach MacConghail (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I am proud to support the motion and I commend my colleague, Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell, on her passionate speech. This issue presents us with a serious philosophical challenge. Much of the framework document for junior cycle is to be applauded and commended. It is a radical, innovative and creative approach to learning, which offers flexibility and begins to see the student or pupil in terms of a process of lifelong learning that will not only empower young people, but could also create a dynamic model of citizenship. The opportunity afforded schools and local communities to engage with the statements of learning could also have a profound impact.

Earlier today, as director of the Abbey Theatre, I met first-year students from Larkin Community College, the theatre's neighbour. Of the 15 students I met, none had visited the Abbey Theatre previously. We were humbled. The theatre is working with the college on a pilot short course called "Theatre and Citizenship". Over the next six or seven weeks, both organisations will become richer in experience and connectivity because of the amazing young people who are engaging with us on their right to access the national theatre. I am, therefore, one of the beneficiaries of innovation and identity in developing the new junior cycle.

As with any change, we need to strike a balance between theory, on the one hand, and practice and the Irish experience, on the other. The motion is not about making anything compulsory. On the issue of compulsory Irish, I blame the syllabus rather than compulsion for the bad experience many people had when learning the language. The purpose of the motion is to enhance and celebrate the syllabus. There is much that is wrong and worrying about the way in which history is currently taught in secondary schools. It is not perfect, nor is it a compulsory subject.

In 2013, 53,000 students did the junior certificate history examination, whereas only slightly more than 11,000 students did the leaving certificate history examination. It is possible that the syllabus is over-laden with content. Only 50% of schools currently require students to take history as a junior certificate subject. The purpose of the motion is to acknowledge the need to develop a bespoke model of education that attempts to engage with the current context. Not having history as a core subject will, over time, diminish the status of the subject and, ultimately, its psychological relevance to students. We are, as Fintan O'Toole observed, in the golden age for the study of Irish history. The amazing coincidence is that we are also in an age in which there is a dearth of new vision, ideas and ideology.

The Minister took a positive step to encourage greater success in mathematics. We need a similar imaginative response to the teaching of history. We must sow the seeds of an enlightened citizenship based on understanding the present through a knowledge of history. This is what the poets of 1916 took from 1798 - history as a way of interpreting rather than knowing the past. I commend the motion to the House.