Is There a Future for Christian Religious Education in Irish Post-primary Schools?

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Is There a Future for Christian Religious Education in Irish Post-primary Schools? Amalee Meehan The Irish state is committed to ensure that all children, in accordance with their abilities should have ‘formative experiences in moral, religious and spiritual education’,1 while maintaining due regard for the rights of the child and their parents to freedom of religion. This holistic approach to education allows for the inclusion of Religious Education as a legitimate activity of the state. Within the context of the new Junior Cycle, the recently published Specification for Junior Cycle Religious Education2 offers a real opportunity for the Catholic community to look at the provision of Christian Religious Education (CRE) in Catholic post primary schools. The new Junior Cycle The Irish National Council for Curriculum andAssessment (NCCA) has taken an integrated approach towards the new Junior Cycle, which replaces the Junior Certificate Programme. Traditionally, learning was centred on a series of independent subjects with their own aims and course objectives. With the new Junior Cycle, this approach has dramatically changed. The Framework for Junior Cycle is based on a set of eight principles, twenty-four statements of learning and eight key skills, describing what all Junior Cycle children should learn.3 This provides a structure for schools to design their own Junior Cycle curriculum. The Junior Cycle curriculum that a school provides must honour the eight principles, meet all twenty-four statements of learning and cultivate the eight key skills in a way that honours its characteristic spirit and meets the learning needs and interests of its students.4 This implies lots of flexibility for individual schools. For many, Religious Education has a significant role to play in the provision of such a curriculum. Religious Education in the new Junior Cycle The learning paradigm of the Junior Cycle is very different from that of the Amalee Meehan Studies • volume 108 • number 429 84 old Junior Certificate. During Junior Cycle, the vast majority of students will learn through: – A number of subjects or a combination of subjects and short courses that are broadly aligned with Level 3 of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Religious Education has been developed as one of these subjects – An area of learning called ‘Wellbeing’. The Framework for Junior Cycle makes provision for wellbeing both as a principle and a curricular subject. According to the accompanying Guidelines for Wellbeing, ‘student wellbeing is present when students realise their abilities, take care of their physical wellbeing, can cope with the normal stresses of life and have a sense of purpose and belonging to a wider community’.5 Currently, schools are obliged to provide a minimum 300 hours of timetabled well-being for children over the course of the three-year programme. From 2020 that provision will increase to 400 hours – Other learning experiences. This includes participation in cocurricular and extra-curricular activities such as team sports, choir, school musical, Gaisce Awards and BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition All of these can be documented in the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) that is issued to students on completion of Junior Cycle. Schools have discretion to decide what combination of subjects, short courses and other learning experiences will be provided for in their threeyear programme. The vision and flexibility of the Framework permits a Junior Cycle where for some schools, Religious Education will be a subject; for others, it might take a different form. It allows for a situation where, for example, the patron of a school or a collective of patrons might design a short course(s) in Religious Education that might be more formative/catechetical in nature. Religious Education learning and activities can also form part of other learning experiences. According to the Guidelines for Wellbeing, elements of wellbeing learning or activities could take place in Religious Education, including once-off events, such as school retreats.6 Wellbeing also provides an important lens through which aspects of Religious Education might be understood and experienced. The Junior Cycle programme designed by any school should be informed Is There a Future for Christian Religious Education in Irish Post-primary Schools? Studies • volume 108 • number 429 85 by the Framework, the particular learning needs and interests of...