The new primary school curriculum launched yesterday has met with mixed reactions. While it was welcomed in principle by teacher unions and parents' groups, the manner in which the Department of Education proposes to implement it has been criticised by Fine Gael and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation.
The general secretary of the INTO, Senator Joe O'Toole, said that while the new curriculum was "the way forward", teachers did not have the resources to make it a success.
He said the curriculum was welcome in principle because it "reflects the educational needs of pupils and the professional judgment of teachers", but the prospect of it being successfully implemented "must be highly doubtful" unless more funds were allocated to primary schools.
School principals were expected "to take on board a whole series of new responsibilities without having any time release to do them".
Implementing the curriculum would require extra teachers and "appropriate investment" in primary schools, he said. Fine Gael and the National Parents' Council-Primary differed on whether parents had been adequately consulted about the new curriculum.
Fine Gael's spokesman on children, Mr Dan Neville TD, said it was "disgraceful" that parents had not been briefed on the new curriculum, but Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, the national co-ordinator of the National Parents' Council-Primary, said the curriculum "strongly reflects the views of parents".
Mr Neville said parents had been "left totally in the dark about the new teaching approaches that are to apply to their children".
He called for briefing sessions on the new curriculum in the coming months and regular reports to parents thereafter.
Ms Kilfeather said the consultation process had been "unique in international terms and means that the curriculum reflects a shared vision of what is important for children in the year 2000 and beyond. "It strongly reflects the view of parents from all over the country on what and how children should learn at school." She called on the Department of Education to ensure parents were given proper notice of when schools would be closed for in-service training of teachers.
Ms Bernardine O'Sullivan, of the Association of Secondary School Teachers, Ireland, welcomed the changes, saying it was pleased with the emphasis on numeracy and literacy.
"If students' difficulties were addressed at primary level before they become acute at secondary level, we would welcome that." Ms O'Sullivan also welcomed the changes in the Irish language syllabus and the plans to teach foreign languages at primary level.
The Labour Party's spokesman on education, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said he was particularly gratified at the provisions in the curriculum relating to arts and culture.
While he doubted whether £5 million would be adequate to implement the curriculum, he said "lack of funding should not be used as an excuse . . . We need to proceed now with enthusiasm to ensure that the new curriculum goes into as many schools as possible next year".
