Primary teachers call for slowing down of curriculum changes

At the INTO annual Congress in Killarney today, delegates called for a slowdown of curriculum changes.

A new language curriculum for Irish and English is currently being rolled out across primary schools while consultation is underway for a new mathematics curriculum.

Teachers have expressed concerns that the curriculum changes are being introduced without proper resources or in-service training making their proper implementation impossible.

Teachers have expressed concerns that the ever-growing list of new initiatives is putting huge pressures on teachers and have called for a clear timetable for any curricular changes to be put in place.

Delegates called on the INTO’s Central Executive Committee to hold an independent study into how teachers’ workload has increased in the last decade and the impact that this is having on the health and working conditions of teachers.

Speaking to the motion Brendan Horan from Tipperary accused the inspectorate of having the view that “if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen”. He said planning was now for accountability purposes rather than to help teaching and learning.

Muireann Broadrick from Navan said teachers were barely staying afloat with curriculum overload. She said the proposed curriculum would cripple the enthusiasm of teaches and would cause stress and anxiety.