New Junior Cert Syllabus

[IolarCoisCuain]

I know more than a few people on here are Knights of the Blackboard and I was wondering what you made of this new Junior Cert syllabus: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1004/quinn-to-announce-major-overhaul-of-junior-cert.html

Any teacher I know is worried about dumbing down and I have to say, anything I heard about that Project Maths thing terrifies me. Are we behind the curve on this? Are we bringing into Ireland what the British tried and have given up on, twenty years off the pace?

Under the new plans, students can substitute two short courses for one full subject to allow for courses such as Chinese or Digital Media Literacy to be taken.

That's the sort of thing that worries me. There is no comparision between something like Digital Media literacy - which means telling lads not to send photos of their lads to everyone in fourth year - and bucking Chinese. I heard some flunkey from the Department talking it up on Radio One this evening and again, my heart didn't soar listening to her. But I'll leave it to professionals - what do you think?