Did you have your say?!

From March to June, NCCA invited anyone with an interest in primary and special education to have their say on the Draft Primary Curriculum Specifications. Following the high level of participation in the consultation, we’ve been kept busy analysing what you had to tell us about the draft curriculum.

21 October, 2024

Did you have your say?!

This consultation on the future of the Primary School Curriculum takes place in the same year as the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Curriculum. A significant amount of feedback was gathered during the consultation with analysis of this nearing completion and feeding into a report which will be published on www.ncca.ie later this year. A separate consultation with children in 14 primary and special schools was also undertaken by Marino Institute of Education. A report on this consultation will be published on www.ncca.ie later this year.

During the consultation, we wanted to hear from as many individuals and organisations as possible. And we did, with participants contributing a broad range of views. We met with teachers and schools leaders in various locations during seven focus group events as well a further seven online focus groups. 25 primary and special schools worked in five different networks to provide detailed feedback. The Croke Park Stadium was the venue for a Consultative Conference in April and was attended by approximately 200 stakeholders. Bilateral meetings were held with 11 education stakeholder organisations, and we received just over 2,000 responses to our online questionnaires and just under 1,000 submissions.

As the upcoming report will show, the findings reveal a general welcome for the draft curriculum specifications, with a sense of excitement and positivity about the redevelopment and modernisation of the curriculum while also providing helpful and constructive feedback related to the accessibility of the documents. This feedback will inform and guide our work in finalising the specifications.