‘Senior cycle needs to be changed within 3 years’
LAST May the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) submitted a report on revamping the Leaving Cert to Minister Foley. But it has sat on her desk ever since even though the Government is due to revert back to the UN committee later this year on how it proposes changing the Leaving Certificate.
Some of the suggested changes include reducing the final year exam from seven to five subjects, introducing continuous assessment and allowing students to do practical work experience instead of sitting in classrooms.
Dr Muldoon added: ‘The NCCA report needs to be published as soon as possible and it also needs to be followed up and the senior cycle needs to be changed within the next three years.
‘The suggestion I’m hearing is that it will be 2030 before we change the senior cycle. That’s ludicrous … within three days the Department of Social Protection created the PUP [Pandemic Unemployment Payment] to go to two million people and we say we can’t change the senior cycle within three years?’
A spokesman for Minister Foley could not say when the much anticipated Leaving Cert review would be finally published when contacted by the MoS this week.
The spokesman said: ‘The Minister is aware of the desire in the education community and more generally that the NCCA Advisory Report be published but it is important that the consideration of the report is completed. The Minister is currently focusing on what the implementation of the report would involve and what we can do to best ensure the further evolution of Senior Cycle.
‘The [department] has been considering the report carefully, with a view to delivering a Senior Cycle programme that meets the needs of the students of today and the future. The report will be published once those considerations are complete.’