PRIMARY AND second-level schools will soon receive policy development packs to help them prepare their own policies on relationships and sexuality education (RSE).
Preparation for the introduction. of the RSE programme is the largest initiative being undertaken at present by the Department of Education's In-Career Development Unit (ICDU), representing an investment of £1.8 million last year. A further substantial sum will be invested this year, according to ICDU principal officer, Paul Doyle.
By June, all 22,000 primary teachers will have received three days' in-service training while 1,800 second-level teachers will have completed four or six days' training (the number of days depends on whether they have already completed the Substance Abuse Prevention Programme in-service), he says.
The RSE programme and eight other major programmes are being supported by new ICDU initiatives which have replaced the old model of in-service training for teachers. Support structures have been put in place and teachers can continue to draw on expert advice and back-up after initial training has been completed.
These support services work in partnership with schools and training meshes in with each school's activities in the least disruptive way possible, Doyle explains.
New Leaving Cert curricula have been introduced for music and business studies this school year; 2,300 business studies teachers and 400 music teachers are being trained. "Music has long been recognised as being in need of a major injection of support and development and that's what's happening now," Doyle says.
Civic, Social and Political Education is being phased into second-level schools over the next two years, with about 260 schools introducing the programme this year and the remainder of the second-level schools coming in next year. The bulk of CSPE training will take place in 1998, Doyle says. CSPE will be compulsory for all junior-cycle students, replacing civics; Students will take it for one period each week and it will be examined at Junior Cert.
To help teachers introducing new programmes, the ICDU has produced an information sheet for schools which lists contact names and phone numbers. This sheet will be sent to all schools in the near future.