Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 November 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Update on the Draft Curriculum Specifications at Primary Level: Discussion

11:00 am

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach agus gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe as ucht teacht ós chomhair an choiste inniu.

I am sorry there are so few of us here but the officials probably all know why. It may mean there is time to come back for a second round of questioning. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not being rude if, in the course of asking them questions, I seek to focus the officials by interrupting.

There are a lot of parents whom I am hearing from who are concerned about what the NCCA is doing, especially around the lack of consultation around sensitive matters. I will have to draw the officials' attention to some correspondence I received from a number of parents who referred to - this will help frame the questioning - their involvement in an in-person focus group convened by the National Parents Council to discuss the draft curriculum in May 2024. Arising from their concerns, they sought a meeting with Dr. Sullivan to discuss specific issues. They are not happy that parents are being fully consulted, heard and heeded in an upfront way. They list a number of things which I find persuasive, one of which is the fact that many parents do not know the primary curriculum was being revised. A very small sample of parents attending online and in-person focus groups is not representative, they say. They point out, for example, that the Minister wrote to parents announcing the free primary book scheme and ask why the Minister did not do something similar in communications terms regarding the curriculum development process.

They also point to the fact there is no toolkit available for the well-being part of the curriculum. This is essential to inform parents and to allow them make decisions about whether they are happy with the way SPHE is being taught. They are concerned about the failure to define sexual identity, for example. No definition is provided. Does this refer to sexual orientation? I notice it is mentioned on page 32 of the primary curriculum framework. I am wondering what that is doing in there. I ask the NCCA representatives directly today what the NCCA means by sexual identity. Is the NCCA conscious and aware of the recent Cass review of the treatment of children experiencing gender distress and will that inform what happens from here on with regard to the SPHE well-being element of the curriculum?

I say all of this because a number of divisive ideologies - critical theory, including critical race theory, gender theory and queer theory - are impacting education today. It is not clear to me how a State school can seek to protect children from such ideologies based on the principles outlined in the draft curriculum. If diversity, equity and inclusion are the principles, that is potentially a charter for the teaching of any wacky ideology if there are not grounding principles that refer, for example, to the need to have an evidence base in all that is taught, an affirmation of reason of the scientific approach. None of this seems to be referred to or strongly referred to in what the council has produced to date. For example, if gender ideology proposes that gender is fluid, that undermines the educational necessity to secure young people in their sexual identity as either male or female. To do that to children would undermine a foundational stone of their overall identity and possibly contribute to the kind of sexual confusion and the problems that we all know about that are happening now. It is questionable whether there is respect for the idea of sexual innocence as being an appropriate education principle. I would like the witnesses' view on that.

To be clear, I am not talking about religious-run schools here. I am talking about education being in line with reason and scientific thought. The concern people have is that the diversity, equity and inclusion ideology is a recipe for stuff being taught to their children that is not evidence-based. When they do not even have a toolkit, they are worried. Does the council recognise the primacy of parents here, first of all? Does it recognise that what it does is subject to the wishes of parents? Does it accept fully and unequivocally that under the Education Act, it is skating on thin ice if it ignores the right of patrons to ensure that everything that is taught through the curriculum is taught having regard to the characteristic spirit of schools? In light of that, does it accept that different schools with different characteristics may take very different approaches to approaching the curriculum?

Will the witnesses define for me what they mean by sexual identity? Can they also tell me why they are using the word “equity” as opposed to the word “equality”? What difference do they see? Why is there not more about an affirmation of Irish identity and European Union identity? Why is there not more about patriotism, you know? Is that a dirty word underlying these ideas? I have run out of questions so I might have to wait until the second round.

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