Sir, - David Gordon, Press Officer with the Department of Education and Science, takes me to task (May 26th) for an article I wrote in Education and Living (May 18) on the new Leaving Certificate English course.
I never had any doubt that the Inspectorate were involved in the formulation of the new syllabus. My concern was their absence from its implementation. Why are they distancing themselves from the ordinary class teacher who has the job of teaching the new course? Talk of empowering the teaching profession rings hollow when we are left with no one to answer legitimate concerns.
As I pointed out in the article, my only personal source of information on the new course was another teacher, in her capacity as trainer.
Even at this stage there seems to be uncertainty about the longer-term content of the new syllabus. Since I wrote the article, publishers have brought out a collection of well-produced, expensive poetry anthologies. However these books may be redundant after one year because their content is limited to the list of poets issued for examination in 2001.
At one of my in-service days, we were told that the list of poets would change every year over a six-year period, with two poets being replaced each year. None of the new anthologies takes account of this because the publishers, I presume, were not given the extended list.
Another long list of plays, novels, biographies and films was also given to teachers, with the requirement that they choose four for study in class. However, once again uncertainty rules because the same list will not be relevant next year. So it is possible that 30 of my students could purchase new copies of Wild Swans or In Pathagonia and discover that they had no resale value in a year's time because they are not on the list for 2002. - Yours, etc., Joe Coy,
Tuam,
Co Galway.