Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 434: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will give details on the teaching of the arts in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20209/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The primary school curriculum 1999 affirms the centrality of the arts in primary education and incorporates the subjects visual arts, music and drama within the curriculum area of arts education. The curriculum envisages that all children will have access to a range of experiences in arts education, which will enable them to communicate their ideas, feelings, insights and experiences through image, music, language, gesture and movement. It also envisages that children will have opportunities to respond as makers, viewers, listeners or readers to their own work and to the expressive creativity of artists, composers, writers and performers. When planning for the implementation of arts education, schools are encouraged to develop relationships with local and national artists and arts institutions such as concert halls, art galleries and museums so that children are enabled to experience visual arts, music and drama in such settings.

At second level, the new leaving certificate music syllabus is now well established and preparations for the introduction of a revised syllabus for leaving certificate art are well under way. The implementation of this syllabus will be accompanied by a comprehensive programme of in-career development for teachers. The introduction of this syllabus will result in a significant increase in interest in art as a subject at senior cycle.

In the transition year programme, schools offer a variety of modules which stimulate pupils' interest in the arts in general and which, in many cases, give them the opportunity to interact with practising artists in their own classrooms and in other contexts.