Sir, – On behalf of the History Teachers’ Association of Ireland (HTAI), I would like to respond to the closing statement of Michael McDowell’s article “We are having another ‘Munich moment’” (Opinion & Analysis, February 22nd). He referred to “our own educationalists” who were “contemplating removing history from the school curriculum”.
Lest some of your readers equate educationalists with teachers, I would like to distinguish between the two with regard to the teaching of history in our schools.
The decision by the educationalist policymakers to allow history to be marginalised and made optional at Junior Cycle level sparked a nation-wide campaign led by the History Teachers’ Association of Ireland and our history partners in third level to place history at the core of the educational system.
Happily, on October 1st, 2019, that decision was reversed and history was given a special core status within the new Junior Cycle.
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The battle was won. This ensured that every young person in this country would be given the opportunity to study history for the first three years of their secondary school education.
In the end, it was the teachers and their supporters who guaranteed the place of history in our schools as opposed to the educationalists who were intent on making it optional. – Yours, etc,
DEIRDRE Mac MATHÚNA,
History Teachers’
Association of Ireland,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6W.