Concerns raised across multiple Leaving Cert review groups that experts not being listened to

Concerns have been raised across a number of Leaving Certificate curriculum redevelopment groups that experts are not being listened to and the structure for reform is not fit for purpose. These subjects include maths, English, chemistry, physics, biology and construction studies. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has curriculum development groups for 17 Leaving Cert subjects.These groups are made up of teachers, union representatives, academics and Department of Education staff, among others. Their work informs the development and sign-off on new curriculums and exam specifications. READ MOREThe entire senior cycle curriculum is being overhauled, with changes being implemented gradually over the next five years. Students sitting Leaving Cert exams in business, biology, chemistry, physics, Arabic, Latin and Ancient Greek this academic year will have studied a revised curriculum, with additional assessment components, since 2025. Revised curriculums for other subjects will be introduced over the coming years, once finalised.However, a growing number of concerns have been raised by those in the development groups about the handling of their feedback.This month Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, associate professor of mathematics education at DCU, announced she had resigned from the Mathematics Development Group because she did not want to be associated with draft courses that were “incoherent and mathematically inaccurate”. [ Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin quits Leaving Cert maths reform group after concerns ‘ignored’Opens in new window ]She said subject experts on the review groups were being ignored and feedback was not being taken on board. The Irish Times understands similar concerns have now been raised in the English Leaving Cert review group.Sources said some members felt they were given parameters for reform which they had to fit into, and that the bigger, more important decisions on what the curriculum would look like were imposed on them.While all members of the review group were very committed to their work, there was a sense that the outcome was predetermined and the only issues they had control over were the smaller decisions. Members of each of the senior cycle science subject review groups – chemistry, biology and physics – have also reported issues with how their feedback was handled. Humphrey Jones, chairperson of the Irish Science Teachers’ Association from 2024-2026, said members of his organisation who sat on the review groups were frustrated with the process. [ Rollout of the reformed Leaving Cert should be suspendedOpens in new window ]“They experienced a very tightly controlled environment, with the agenda and narrative dictated by the education officers; group members were not able to suggest agenda items or bring any of their own research or suggestions to the meetings; significant concerns with the model used in the specifications were not listened to,” Jones told The Irish Times. “Discussions on the allocation of marks to the new non-exam assessments were not allowed. The minutes of the meetings were vague and rarely reflected the tone of the conversations.“Overall, as a volunteer organisation that has campaigned for curriculum change over the years (science is an ever evolving subject by its nature), it has been a long, tedious and frustrating process.” Last year Trevor Hickey, a lecturer at the University of Limerick and author of Leaving Cert textbooks on construction studies, resigned from the group tasked with redeveloping the subject over claims that the new syllabus was being “dumbed down”. Hickey told the NCCA he was “very concerned” that while the current syllabus had a significant amount of applied science content, the latest draft was “hardly recognisable to me as a Stem [science, technology, maths and engineering] subject”.The NCCA has been contacted for comment.