Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann– - recognises the role of history in promoting civil engagement and an understanding of the present through a knowledge of events in the past;

- recognises that public engagement and awareness of history has been enhanced following the centenary of the 1916 Rising which saw thousands of commemorative events take place all over the country;

- acknowledges the Government’s commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government to nurture different ambitions through new subject choices, greater engagement with enterprise on future skills needs, and increased flexibility in the day to day management of schools in order to improve outcomes;

- recognises historical study as an important component in the education of students;

- recognises that reform and modernisation of junior cycle history is needed in order to align it coherently with the revised leaving certificate history syllabus;

- notes the convening, since early 2016, by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment of the History Development Group which will establish the new curriculum specification for junior cycle history and, in particular, notes its Background Paper and Brief for the Review of Junior Cycle History, September 2016;

- notes that all schools offer opportunities for historical study to all students;

- notes that students studying history as a subject in the new junior cycle specification will do so for a minimum of 2 hours per week which is in most cases as good as or better than what is currently provided in terms of class contact time;

- calls on the Minister for Education and Skills to consider further ways to support and promote the learning objectives of the new junior cycle history in order to inform students of their local, national and international heritage and assist in understanding the importance of the relationship between past and present; and

- calls on the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the implications for junior cycle history in the context of the junior cycle reforms and the establishment of the History Development Group by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

I welcome to the House the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, who is taking this important Private Members' motion. The backdrop to the tabling of the motion is the uncertainty concerning the teaching of history in the junior certificate cycle. Members of the House recognise the importance of history because we are elected to represent the citizens of the country. Each and every one of us, from all parties and none, is elected because we feel a sense of duty to our constituents, to the citizens of the country, to Ireland and to those who created the Ireland that we are fortunate to have inherited. We have a sense of our duty to pass on a better Ireland to the next generation.

Most politicians that I know have a deep sense of the historical traditions of this House, our country, our people and the world. I want to see that passed on to the next generation. I want to see many young people aspiring to be politicians and to serving in this House for the right reasons. I want them to be equipped with the facts and the knowledge of who we are, where we came from, what our place in the world is, what the world has stood for in the past and where the world has evolved and overcome challenges. I want to see future generations understand that sense of nation, duty and civic responsibility.

I was fortunate to have a good history teacher at second level who instilled in me a deep sense of history and of wanting to learn and understand more about it and, although I did not study history at college, I maintained an interest in it. Given today's motion, it is fitting to pay tribute to Professor Ronan Fanning, who was professor of history at UCD, and to acknowledge his great work. He inspired a love and understanding of history and an interest in it in generations of students and has left an indelible legacy. It is appropriate that the House would pay tribute to this great historian on his passing.

There is another reason for my tabling the motion. We had a successful commemoration in 2016. However, it lacked in one way, which was the promotion and the development of the teaching of history as a subject in our secondary schools. However, parents and teachers still have an interest in persuading young people to study history and young people have an interest in pursuing it. The figures speak for themselves. In 2006, fewer people studied history at junior certificate level than there are studying it in 2016 and fewer people took history at higher level in the leaving certificate than are taking it in 2016.

In real terms, the number of students taking history as a subject in second level education has increased. However, and I am sorry to say it, I feel that there is a culture in the Department of Education and Skills that promotes ICT, science and mathematics, all of which are extremely important subjects for the country's development and competitiveness, over history. I fear that the Minister's officials and some of his predecessors were not as favourably disposed to the teaching of history as they should have been, but they had and have a duty to do everything in their power to ensure that history stands shoulder to shoulder with every other subject on the second level curriculum. It is not a poor relation. It is not a by-subject and should not be part of an overall course. It should be a standalone course.I have to acknowledge that the Programme for a Partnership Government is very much a programme that wants to foster the development of education and all that is good about education. I note that there is a working group under the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, that is devising the new junior certificate curriculum, but I want to put that working group on notice that nothing less than a full recognition, full autonomy and shoulder to shoulder positioning of history at second level will be acceptable to me, to many citizens and certainly to the people who are teaching history.

How do we expect our young people to engage and participate in our society unless they know their past? Are we going to have a situation in the future where large sections of our adult population will not have an understanding of what happened in Nazi Germany, of what happened during the Great Famine, of what happened in 1916, an understanding of the Land League and an understanding of people like James Connolly, Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins and all the other people who played such an important role in the early stages of our democracy?

Are we, as a nation, going to allow the understanding of our history to be diminished in favour of science, technology, computers, mathematics and foreign languages? I do not think we should allow that. This House has a great history itself. Many historical figures and academics who contributed to our society have been Members over the years. A clear message needs to go out from this House to the Government and to the officials in the Department of Education and Skills that history should and must have its place as an equal with every other subject, both at junior certificate and at leaving certificate levels. We owe that to future generations because one will not be able to equip oneself for the future unless one has a knowledge of the past.

We have had great people in this country. We have had great people who have played amazing roles in our history. Our young people need to have an understanding of the sacrifices and the contributions those people made. In the big bad world of Facebook, Twitter, computers and the Internet, and all of the wonderful advancements that have happened to counteract that big bad world, we cannot forget where we came from, our history and our sense of nationhood.

How are young people going to become civically engaged and politically active? How are they going to understand about democracy, and the importance and the fragility of democracy? How are they going to understand any of that unless they have an understanding of how democracy was formed and of the absolute sacrifices that people had to make in this country in the early part of our democracy post-1916, during the economic war and the economic devastation in the 1930s and 1940s? What about social history? What about the history of Europe? Are we going to entertain a situation where only a minority of young people are going to have an understanding of that? I hope not. I sincerely hope that we are not such a country.

Every nation is proud of its history and its culture. There are elements of our history and our culture that we are not proud of. We need to understand that and young people need to understand that as well. The message that needs to go out from Seanad Éireann is that history has to have an equal place, equal funding and equal supports from the Department of Education and Skills, not just today and tomorrow, but into the future. This debate should not be necessary. I should not have to make the case as to why history should be an equal partner with other subjects. It is regrettable that in embracing all that is good about technologies and other subjects we seem to have forgotten about something very important.

I will finish my opening remarks by commending all the history teachers who have engaged and supported me in this battle, which I have been engaged in for the last four or five years in this House. I have spoken about it on numerous occasions. I did not succeed in getting the learning and teaching of history the recognition I had hoped for in 2016 during our commemorations. I regret that but I will not give up the battle. I will continue to fight the good fight for the learning of history because we owe it to our young people, those who come after us and after them. I hope that in 2017 I will have more success in my campaign. I commend one particular teacher, who e-mailed me late last night and who simply said to keep up the good fight, because our young people will not have a society, civic engagement and an understanding of democracy unless they understand what happened in the past. There is nothing as wonderful as a love of history. I commend this motion to the House and I sincerely hope that it gets unanimous support today.