Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the Leaving Certificate art curriculum which has not been updated for approximately 40 years; his plans to update the Leaving Certificate art curriculum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43810/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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A revised Leaving Certificate Art Syllabus was forwarded to the Department from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. However, implementation of a revised Leaving Certificate Art Syllabus would require significant investment in professional development for teachers and also equipment. Resources for this are not available at the current time in the context of my overall priorities.

The major priorities for the present Government are to proceed with the Maths reform at both Junior and Senior cycles which are under way, to strengthen literacy and numeracy and to implement the recommendations in the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy which I published last year, and also to reform junior cycle provision, based on the Framework document that I published last week which should allow for greater creativity and innovation, embedding key skills and addressing curriculum overload.