Senior-cycle students may be able to choose whether they want to study Irish as a full or half course under radical new proposals currently being discussed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
Under the proposed plans, which are still in draft form, students of the new senior cycle will study a mix of 45-hour-long transition units, short courses equivalent to half a subject, and core subjects.
However in a controversial move, Irish language appears as a short course and not a full subject in a sample two-year programme of study distributed at a meeting of the council yesterday. This means it is placed in the same group as European literature in translation, Italian language and media and communication.
The programme, which is tailored to a student who is particularly interested in languages, lists Spanish, mathematics, history, art and English as core subjects.
It was unclear last night whether students would be obliged to take certain subjects such as Irish, English and mathematics under the new plans, which are still at an early stage.
It is also possible that students could combine a number of short courses, such as Irish language or Irish literature, which together could equal a full subject.
Irish appears as a full course in the sample three-year programme also distributed at the meeting. The sample two-year programme however indicates that the curriculum council is considering changing Irish to a half course.
Under the proposed plans, both short courses and core subjects will count for CAO points and will be examined externally.
Assessment of transition units will be built into the teaching of the unit, but will not count for CAO points. It is understood that students of a two-year cycle will be required to complete at least one transition unit, while those studying three-year cycles will be expected to complete more.
However, it is also unclear whether three-year courses will be equivalent to two-year courses and if core subjects will entail as many hours teaching as has been the case to date.
Typical transition units include art appreciation, learning management, school magazines, peace studies, mini-companies and work shadowing. These are broadly similar to many of the topics currently studied by transition year students here.
Students at senior cycle will be expected to have encountered at least six "key skills". These are learning to learn, information processing, personal effectiveness, communication, critical thinking and working with others.
The aim of the new senior cycle will be to take account of how such skills are embedded within a student's particular choice of subjects.
The proposed "skillometer", whose name may be subject to change, will then display the extent to which a student has encountered each of the key skills during his or her senior-cycle programme of study.
Short courses, equivalent to 90 hours of teaching, will include modules on personal health and education, science and society, urban studies, European literature in translation and sport studies. However, it has not yet been decided how many short and/or long courses will count towards a student's final mark.