A Senior Cycle in our schools to answer Ireland’s call
BY KIERAN GOLDEN
How times have changed in Ireland since the foundation of the state! According to the Central Statistics Office 12pc of our current population has a non-Irish background. Pupils from 200 countries attend our schools speaking many languages. We are told that 13pc have a disability and 20pc experience deprivation. The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals is proud to support the Thomas F. Meagher Foundation whereby our national flag is a symbol for all our nation. Meagher would have approved of the recent debate and consultation to reform the Senior Cycle of our education system and make it more reflective of the society we live in and better able to deliver the vision we have for our society. NAPD seeks to influence the national debate to deliver happy, fulfilled, challenged and curious students. In the Ireland of today we need students who can think for themselves and be both autonomous and selfdirected learners. Equality of opportunity for all in a system that is equitable and respects differences. Our current system with the Leaving Certificate at its core is weighted towards the academically minded but students are not taking ownership of their own learning because broader skills are neglected.
A good example is the fact that experts tell us that students must be prepared for the digital age but we still insist that students do hand written exams in sessions that can last up to three hours and twenty minutes! Our business colleagues in IBEC remind us that the goal of 2.1 million people in employment by 2015 is already achieved. Human-centric skills are what employers will want but how can our current system with its focus on points in the Leaving Certificate help students unlock their learning? Our senior cycle must support employability with education. We are so lucky that most students do Transition Year (TY). Having undertaken the year students will have benefited from work experience and social outreach programmes to develop their self-confidence and social skills, they’ll be a year older and wiser as they undertake their Leaving Cert studies but we should explore whether TY should be compulsory and incorporated into a three-year senior cycle. While the debate continues about senior cycle reform we are changing the senior cycle curriculum with the arrival of Politics and Society, Computer Studies, Physical Education and revised syllabi are being planned in a number of other subjects. Thomas F. Meagher was an idealist. As a nation we must look on education with an openness to wonder and joy. As the president of Maynooth University, Philip Nolan, said at a recent event: “Education should foster good ways of living together with care for each other and for our common world”. Not much openness to wonder and joy is experienced by many in 6th year at the moment! They have lots of homework and little social life. Over half of 6th years take grinds and our students experience significant stress, mental health and wellbeing issues. The current debate may lead to change. I hope so because I firmly believe that education is at the heart of Meagher’s ideals for Ireland – pride in our country, respect for one another and the joy of living in peace and rejoicing in our difference.
Kieran Golden is the current President of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD)