Sir, - Your Education and Living supplement of September 14th continues with the uncritical reception which our media and primary school interests have given to the 1999 update of the 1971 New Curriculum for primary schools. Significantly, perhaps, comments from secondary and tertiary interests are conspicuous by their absence. Yet, both secondary and tertiary teachers are most unhappy with the teachability of what eight years of primary schooling places in front of them.
The retrieval ability of primary products has, for a long time, been so bad that a high proportion are doomed to get miserable Leaving Certs despite "dumbing down" marking measures. Poor retrieval shows up most of all in reading and writing, which are basic to learning in all areas at all life stages. It is the prime cause of the reading failure which leaves 500,000 of our adults sub-literate. It has even university graduates handicapped by poor spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation.
Will the 1999 update make any difference? Probably not, judging from a quote attributed to its chief architect, Lucy Fallon-Byrne. "When children are actively involved in what they learn, both physically and emotionally, they learn at a deeper level and retain their knowledge." That is true. But - is the knowledge retained retrievable? Attentive involvement makes retention automatic, but it does not guarantee accurate retrieval. Attentive TV viewers retain vast amounts of knowledge, but their retrieval is so poor that repetitive advertising is needed. Schooling which is satisfied with retention is a formula for disaster.
It may be, then, that the 1999 update is set to make things even more difficult at secondary, tertiary and later stages. However, Ms Fallon-Byrne and her supporters have an easy way to prove otherwise. End-of-primary tests which measure retrieval ability generally, and its reading-and-writing manifestation in particular, would show what eight years of schooling the 1999 way achieve. -Yours, etc.,
Joseph F. Foyle, Director, Read Ireland, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.