By Chris Ashmore
TWO new subjects will soon be on the curriculum for Leaving Certificate students in Donegal as part of a series of wide ranging reforms of the senior cycle in schools.
The two new subjects, which will be available from September, are: Drama, Film and Theatre Studies; and, Climate Action and Sustainable Development.
All Leaving Certificate subjects are currently being updated, and the first of five tranches of changes are due to come on stream in the next academic year.
Among the first subjects to be updated will be Business, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Furthermore, as part of the “Senior Cycle Redevelopment” process, Transition Year is being reviewed.
Commenting on the forthcoming changes, Anne McHugh, Donegal Education and Training Board (ETB) Chief Executive, noted that “some Leaving Certificate subjects have not been updated for 30 years or more” and said that this would “bring them into the modern world.”
Addressing the February meeting of the Donegal ETB Board, she stated that “another key change is that in all subjects there will be an Additional Assessment Components, worth 40 per cent in most cases, which will be completed prior to the final examination.”
This, she told the Board, was “all part of trying to reduce the stress” on examinations.
She also noted that there are concerns around the use of Artificial Intelligence in relation to Additional Assessment Components and this is being addressed by the Department of Education and Youth and the State Examinations Commission with the latter having recently tendered for a piece of research in this area.
Ms. McHugh and a number of principals from Donegal attended the annual Senior Cycle Redevelopment Conference in Croke Park recently at which over 300 school leaders gathered to hear inputs from colleague school leaders and other partners and stakeholders.
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