Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

And rightly so.

The Education Act 1998 makes clear in section 9 that schools are required to do two things: to provide "a curriculum as prescribed by the Minister" and to "promote the moral, spiritual, social and personal development of students and provide health education for them, in consultation with ... parents, having regard to the characteristic spirit of the school", or what most of us would probably refer to as the ethos of the school. Not surprisingly, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is currently conducting a public consultation on redevelopment on the curriculum side, that is, the primary school curriculum. That process runs to 7 June and invites input on five draft curriculum specifications. I encourage parents, in particular, but all concerned citizens to make submissions to the NCCA. What amazes me on the "characteristic spirit" side is that despite the constitutional priority given to parents in the education of their children, little attention is paid by the NCCA to parents' views on the content of their children's education. I am asking for a debate, in fact, on the shaping of our curriculum. The NCCA and the Department consistently ignore the reality that the characteristic spirit of a school should be a guiding light for the implementation of any syllabus. However, there is never any mention of this in consultation documents except occasionally to decry that influence. As I said, the Education Act 1998 makes clear what the rights and responsibilities of schools are. Why does the NCCA continue to ignore this duty on schools? Why does it insist on producing curriculums that seek to bypass the responsibility around characteristic spirit? Why does it kowtow to critical theory and gender theory in producing its draft specifications? I encourage all primary school parents, in particular, to push back against this centralising, controlling, ideological politicisation of the curriculum by the NCCA and the Department and make their submissions determinedly by 7 June.