IPPN

28th January 2010 Primary curriculum not meeting the needs of the child

Last Updated: Thursday, 28 January 2010 11:56

‘What children are taught should be relevant to their lives and their futures, but does the Revised Curriculum in its present format meet the actual needs of children in 2010?’. This is the question posed by the National Director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), Mr Seán Cottrell, in his address to over 1,100 Principals and invited guests at IPPN’s Annual Conference in Citywest Hotel, Dublin, on Friday January 29^th.

The IPPN Director also states, ‘If education is to be relevant to their futures, we must equip children with a far broader range of inter- and intra-personal skills. It is clear that in the future the ability to think critically, analyse, discern, communicate, solve problems and learn new skills will be the real measures of Primary Education.’

ENDS

An IPPN survey revealed that 87% of Principals have seen an increase in emotional disturbance in our school-going children while just over 50% of Principals have noticed an increase in incidences of depression and violent behaviours. Huge numbers of children, girls in particular, are anxious and unhappy about their weight. ‘The challenges that previously were experienced only at second level have become very real in Primary Schools’, states Mr Cottrell, ‘but the curriculum allocates only one hour per week to Physical Education and only a half hour per week to Social, Personal and Health Education. This does not reflect the reality of children’s lives today.’ According to the IPPN survey, only 10% of Principals consider that the SPHE and Physical Education programmes are being successfully implemented in schools.