Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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186. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the efforts being made to encourage schools to continue to embrace and reflect on all aspects of the 1916 Easter Rising, including its cultural, political, social and historical relevance, as well as to honour the heroism and vision of those who took part in the Rising; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6924/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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While the centenary of 1916 has come, been commemorated appropriately by schools and has now gone, a number of important supports to students’ engagement with the cultural, political, social and historical relevance of the events of 100 years ago are ongoing. Some of this will undoubtedly be achieved through the lens of the new ‘Creative Ireland’ initiative, being led by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and the Department of Education and Skills has significant commitments under what is called Pillar One of this initiative.

From the more specific perspective of History, I am satisfied that there are a number of key supports to the study of 1916. For one thing, many of the history-specific resources which have been developed for the Ireland 2016 commemorative programme retain a currency as we move further into the Decade of Centenaries. The supports for teachers, and often generated by teachers, which are provided on the Department’s education portal Scoilnet remain available to teachers and students. So too, the fabulous resources available from the Bureau of Military History, the Letters of 1916 and other repositories, which were partners in the Department’s work under Ireland 2016, will continue to be available to students, researchers and teachers as we close in on centenaries of other key years in the emergence of modern Ireland.

The Department will also continue its support for the all-island schools history competition, now in its fourth year and with a specific ‘Decade of Centenaries’ focus. We are also looking at appropriate ways of archiving the Proclamations for a New Generation, of which over a thousand were developed by schools during 2016. These are a vivid reminder of the importance of learning from the past in order to reimagine and improve modern Ireland too.

A full revision of the History specification is now underway at the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). It is expected that this review will produce a draft specification, for public comment, in the first half of 2017, and that both the events of 100 years ago, and the skills that students need to interpret and understand them, will form key elements of the eventual specification. The new specification is scheduled for implementation in the autumn of 2018.