History will show McHugh was right to bring back core subject
The Education Minister’s decision to shun the advice of a key advisory body should be applauded, writes Mary O’Rourke
MUCH attention has been focused recently on the big issue of Brexit, as negotiations intensify. That is as it should be, as the issue itself is of such huge importance to Europe, to the UK, but most of all to Ireland, north and south.
Caught up in all this was the recent decision by Education Minister Joe McHugh to restore the study of history as a core subject in the junior cycle curriculum.
I want to give my full-hearted approval of that decision, and to sketch in some of the background to it.
Some of the comments of late about the restoration of history have been of the vein, “Why should the minister go against the views of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment?”
I’ ll tell you why. People who expressed disapproval have forgotten a major tenet of government: advisers advise, and ministers decide.
After all, what is politics about if ministers don’t, from time to time, take decisions into their own hands?
Let me go back a while. In 1988, when I was education minister, I set up the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) as an advisory body to the minister in Marlborough Street. Dr Ed Walsh, the head of the University of Limerick, was its first chairperson. Earlier, Gemma Hussey, when she was minister, had set up the Curriculum and Examinations Board (CEB) which was the forerunner of the NCCA.
So, the NCCA continued on its way, offering very worthwhile advice and reforms to the Department of Education and to whoever was the minister of the time. When the Education Act of 1998 was enacted, it consolidated the role of the NCCA within the education hierarchy, but it remained at its essence an advisory body, though a very important one.
Some years ago in its reform of the junior cycle, the NCCA proposed that history not be retained as a core subject. There was an outcry then, but the then minister paid no heed and took the advice, and so it went on.
Then the history saga takes on a bit of heat. The new minister, Mr McHugh, announced that he was going to review that decision.
Around that time, last October, the History Teachers’ Association of Ireland had their agm in the Radisson Hotel in Athlone. They invited me to speak at it, and in the course of that discussion I made the Athlone Declaration, which was duly reported locally.
We welcomed the changes which had been made in the history curriculum, but we declared there should be a stop now. At senior level, the exploration into history had gone too far and was in danger of dumbing down the whole subject.
We also, at that meeting, gave two cheers to Mr McHugh for his initiative in his review, and said we would hold our final comment until he made his final decision.
So far, so good, and then, as we know, a few weeks ago, Mr McHugh came out and said he had made his decision and History was to be restored as a core subject on the junior curriculum.
So, the purpose of my article now is to give a resounding three cheers to the minister for that decision.
He reflected long on it, he talked to many people, particularly to students. He reflected on his own years of teaching, and all in all, he finally took the decision and announced it.
Of course, in my few years of secondary school teaching I taught History at senior level, and was well aware of the vivid impact it had on young people. After all, if we don’t know where we came from, how do we know where we are going?
We have only to look at the carry-on in Britain in the debate on Brexit to realise that, for many people, the historical narrative with regard to where they came from is unknown and, at best, not well-informed.
History is not about dry dates, battles won, territories overtaken, etc. All this is, of course, important, but it is not as important as finding out how we lived, what our relationships were like with the world and with our neighbours, and how we saw ourselves as a people.
History is lively, vivid and compelling, and is of right now being restored to its rightful place in schools.
Of course we know that modern subjects have to take their place in the curriculum, and that is right and proper also. As Colm O’Rourke pointed out last week, we should be aware always of the dumbing down of a subject just to make it ‘popular’ or to go along with the tide. Knowledge is knowledge, and an awareness of the facts and mores of history are so important to a young mind and to a student as he or she is entering into the senior cycle of school with, I hope now, a good knowledge of history.
So I praise Joe McHugh for his personal, informed decision to restore history as a core subject to students studying at junior level.
But above all, I am emboldened by the following through of a maxim which should always be held in regard by ministers in government.
Yes, of course you heed and study the advice given to you by advisory bodies. After all, that is what they are there for. Advisers advise, but ministers decide.
Hip hip hooray, for a brave, timely and visionary decision.
‘An awareness of the facts of history are so important to a young mind’