Sir, – The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and the Department of Education and Skill display a myopic and ideological zeal for ill-defined skills such as critical thinking, creative thinking and wellbeing as being discrete and decontextualised from knowledge and skills. There is an overwhelming body of internationally peer-reviewed research which gives the lie to any rational or evidence-informed basis for the implementation of such curricular reform. I quote distinguished educational psychologist Prof Paul Kirschner: “Knowledge and skills are necessary to do anything further. Without those, you can’t solve problems, you can’t creatively design anything, you can’t carry out a good argument and you can’t discuss things. Our brains are limited in how much they can take up at one time and how they can process that”.
The ability to analyse and understand is predicated on and embedded in subject knowledge. The NCCA and the department persist in their attempts to put the cart before the horse in this regard. Parents should be aware that they are being sold a pup, and by the time they come to the realisation, it may be too late to rectify.
I urge parents to demand that this folly is halted immediately. – Yours, etc,
MIKE LYONS, M Ed
Cork.