Ireland considers making history non-compulsory

UCD history professor Diarmaid Ferriter said plans to remove history as a compulsory subject under the new junior cycle programme were “very worrying for the future”.

Would the student “be equipped to analyse effectively the present?”, he said as part of a History Teachers’ Association of Ireland delegation speaking to the Oireachtas education committee today.

The Association expressed “grave concern” at the removal of their subject as compulsory under the new junior cycle programme. History “may not be offered” at junior level and “does not have to be offered under the statements of learning,” Association president Gerard Hanlon said referring to the criteria to be met under the planned junior cycle programme which is to change history from 2017.

Mr Hanlon focused on statement eight which encompasses history and requires students to understands the importance of the relationship between past and current events. However the programme states that it could be covered by Chinese, Jewish studies, religious deduction and science among others, he explained....