Change is healthy and plans to modernise schools is an A1 idea
CHANGE is never easy but a news bulletin about plans to teach primary school children well-being, shifting the focus from academic rote learning, was music to my ears.
Under the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) plans, PE and social and health education will be taught at length to pupils, while academic and religious instruction will be lessened. As with everything in this country the changes won’t come into effect for years, (2025 to be specific), that’s if they are approved following a consultation period.
The new education framework will form the basis for a new primary school curriculum to replace the current curriculum, which is 21 years old. The proposals are based on extensive research and initial consultation with education partners, as well as a ‘schools forum’, which is comprised of 43 schools. The plans will allow teachers much more flexibility with their classroom work planning, addressing changing expectations and priorities in primary education.
For many of us our primary school-days were amazing times. With the excitement of learning, new connections being made, friendships forged and skills, both social and practical developed, all in an encouraging, loving environment, those days were seminal to how we grew to see the world.
It wasn’t all like that. Slaps were administered. Dusters were thrown, All kinds of crazy things went on in some schools.
Thankfully times have changed and the world no longer tolerates the frustrations of angry old men who got some weird cathartic power trip out of beating the leather out of children.
The NCCA’s new framework sets out eight key principles to govern primary education, including a new focus on inclusive education and diversity. It also sets out seven ‘key competencies’ – broad areas of learning which, according to the council, that ‘capture essential knowledge, skills, concepts, dispositions, attitudes and values which enable children to adapt and deal with a range of situations, challenges and contexts’.
In effect this involves building resilience for the big bad world. The tough love of old is being replaced by a more holistic approach. The seven key competencies are being creative, being a digital learner, being mathematical, communicating and using language, fostering well-being, learning to be a learner, and being an active citizen. The framework also envisages a move away from 11 subjects in the first four years of primary education in favour of five broad curriculum areas.
Foreign languages will be introduced to primary school pupils under the plan which make perfect sense as children are like sponges and can pick up languages very quickly.
These include growing demand for the inclusion of a modern European language in the system, as well as technological skills such as coding.
The public consultation period will run until October. Public meetings will be held at locations throughout the country as part of the consultations. Interested parties can also make submissions online. After October, the NCCA will finalise a framework. Top marks to the NCAA.