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Climate Action and Sustainable Development

Development is underway on a specification for a new Leaving Certificate subject - Climate Action and Sustainable Development.

Context
NCCA advises the Minister for Education on curriculum and assessment for early childhood education, for primary and post-primary schools. As part of the broader reform of Senior Cycle, it is envisaged that a new specification for Climate Action and Sustainable Development will be introduced into schools on a phased basis from September 2025. The Development Group for Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development will have a key role in this work. The Group will include nominees of the education partners, the Department of Education and other key education agencies. 

 

The first phase of developing the specification involves convening of a development group and a consultation on the background paper. You can find out more about this below.

 

The draft Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development specification was made available for national public consultation from 2nd February to 5th April, 2024. The aim of this consultation was to seek the open and honest views of the public in relation to the curriculum and assessment arrangements in the new draft specification for Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development.

The consultation involved in-depth engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders across Ireland. NCCA also contacted schools to participate in school-based focus groups involving teachers, students and school leaders.

The feedback from this consultation will help to inform the work of the Development Group for Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable in refining the draft specification prior to final approval and publication.

 

The first step in the development of Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development was the development of a Background paper and brief for the development of the subject. 

A public consultation on the Background Paper and brief took place from 5th of September 2022 to 28th October 2022 and a report on the consultation was published in December 2022. 

The development group for Leaving Certificate Climate Action & Sustainable Development was convened on September 27th 2022 and will progress the development of a new specification guided by the brief and the findings of the consultation on the Background paper.

Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development will be developed to support the realisation of the purpose and vision for a redeveloped senior cycle as set out in the Senior Cycle Review: Advisory Report (NCCA, 2022). The guiding principles, as described in the Advisory Report, provide a touchstone for the Development Group as they undertake the task of preparing a curriculum specification for Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development.

Agreed short descriptions of meetings that have taken place so far, can be accessed below: