Sir, – Your editorial on the teaching of history is a response to a policy change that did not happen ("The Irish Times view on the teaching of history: An invaluable tool in the era of fake news", April 24th).
It states “wellbeing has replaced history as a core subject”, and refers to the “decision to drop history”. There was no decision to drop history, and it has not been replaced as a core subject.
As many others have already pointed out in your newspaper and elsewhere, history was never a compulsory subject.
The rules for voluntary secondary schools (which around half of students attend) did list “history and geography” as a subject that students should learn at junior cycle, and it was – and continues to be – widely taught in all school types.
There is no evidence that the status of history has changed since the introduction of the new junior cycle framework in schools.
For exactly the reasons you outline, history has always been and will always be a core element of the curriculum.
There is, on the other hand, plenty of evidence – from the ESRI’s longitudinal study, for example – that the old system in which students spent much of their time covering large amounts of content within separate subject areas did little for student engagement or the development of critical thinking or other lifelong learning skills.
The fundamental issue with your leader, however, is that you advocate for the development of policy based on a Minister’s instinct.
We have seen where this has led in the UK, for example, where minister after minister has mandated changes in the education system according to their “instincts”, resulting in an impoverished curriculum, relentless standardised testing, the effective privatisation of schools and teachers leaving the profession in droves.
The long-awaited reforms of the junior cycle are just now starting to take effect in schools, and the emerging evidence is positive.
The right way to ensure our young people develop the “questioning attitude” and media literacy skills to which you refer is to continue to develop educational policy and practice with regard to evidence, rather than instinct. – Yours, etc.
Dr EMER NOWLAN,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – Should we not question the wisdom of asking the National Centre for Curriculum and Assessment, the very organisation whose decision it was to downgrade history in the new junior cycle, to carry out the review as to whether its previous decision was the correct one or not?
Does our Minister for Education expect turkeys to vote for Christmas? – Yours, etc,
ENDA
WHELTON,
Doolin,
Co Clare.