A university lecturer and author of Leaving Cert textbooks on construction studies has resigned from a group tasked with redeveloping the subject over claims that the new syllabus is being “dumbed down”.
Trevor Hickey, associate professor and course director of the teacher education programme for construction studies at University of Limerick, was a member of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment‘s (NCCA) subject development group.
Construction studies, studied by more than 10,000 Leaving Certificate students each year, has not been updated since it was introduced in 1983. A new curriculum is being developed and scheduled to roll out for fifth-year students from September 2026.
Mr Hickey told the NCCA that he was “very concerned” that while the current syllabus had a significant amount of applied science content, the latest draft was “hardly recognisable to me as a Stem [science, technology, maths and engineering] subject.
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“If the current draft proceeds as is, in future some third-level courses may not accept construction studies for matriculation on to third-level Stem programmes,” he said.
The original construction studies syllabus, he said, included references to “fundamental scientific concepts and knowledge that underpin the design of buildings”, such as heat and thermal effects.
This original vision of construction studies as a Stem subject has been “all but abandoned in the proposed draft”, he said.
A significant majority of the subject development group, Mr Hickey said, wished the subject to become a “Leaving Cert version of Junior Cycle wood technology”.
Yet, trainee teachers were coming through the University of Limerick on “very high points” and “more than capable of delivering a scientific and technological version of construction studies that reflects the latest advances in the industry,” he said.
“If action is not taken now the future of version of this subject will be a missed opportunity; one we have been waiting for since 1983,” Mr Hickey said. “Let us not forget that Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis.”
The industry had been rocked “in recent memory by boom and bust cycles”, he said, and by “building scandals” such as defective apartments.
“We have here a unique opportunity to educate the next generation of young people on how to design and build homes”
In response to his concerns, the NCCA’s chief executive Arlene Forster told Mr Hickey by letter last December that the council worked closely with “teachers, students and school leaders to gather their experiences of working with [construction studies], and their hopes and aspirations for a redeveloped specification.”
She said further consultation and engagement with schools and the wider public was planned during 2025 to allow others to share their perspectives and contribute to updating the subject.
[ Leaving Cert reforms to press ahead this year despite union oppositionOpens in new window ]
Ms Forster’s letter also states that while many students use their Leaving Cert results for matriculation purposes, subject specifications are not designed specifically for matriculation.
“They are designed for broader educational purposes and the decision to allow a specific subject or not to be used for matriculation purposes for Stem programmes rests with higher education institutions,” she wrote.
Each post-primary subject development group working on senior cycle education includes nominees from the teachers’ unions, school management bodies, the Department of Education, the State Examinations Commission, and further and higher education interests.
