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National Council for Curriculum and Assessment adopt Humanist Association of Ireland’s Submission

By Nicolas Johnson

(Originally published in the October - December 2005 issue of The Irish Humanist, the quarterly publication of the Humanist Association of Ireland.)

Readers of The Irish Humanist may recall the article HAI makes representation to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, in the April-June 2005 issue. That article reported on the Association’s contribution to the Consultation Document Towards a Framework for Early Learning published by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA). The Consultation Document set out one key objective: “Support the development of all children form birth to six years.” After a careful review of that document it became clear that the needs of children from Humanist or non-religious families had been neglected or overlooked. We undertook to correct this omission by submitting our response to a questionnaire followed by conversations and exchange of views with the cognisant education officer.

The result of the consultation process has recently been published electronically by NCCA. It is entitled Towards a Framework For Early Learning, Final Consultation Report, May 2005 and can be viewed at the NCCA website. A large body of the report consists of extracts of submissions from interested parties. All such extracts are preceded with introductory words such as “Participants reported that: ...” However we felt our contribution should not be considered as just one more opinion held by one organisation. We felt our submission was a statement of principle which reflected the needs of a large segment of Irish society which otherwise had gone unmet. After considerable good-will effort with the NCCA representative our submission in that context was accepted for inclusion in the final report. Our statement appears in the subsection entitled “Inclusive framework” which is introduced by “Participants also noted the necessity for a national framework to accommodate diversity. This diversity emanates from the eclectic mix of philosophies and traditions which inform adults in supporting children in their learning.” Our submission then follows:

It is important to recognize the importance that discussions or descriptions of the framework should not exclude any child. Thus, where the consultative document refers to diversity in terms of religion, it is important to also acknowledge that there are children who do not have any religion and that their cultural values and needs should also be recognised and met. References to diversity of religion should also include references to no religion for those children of no religion.

The Association’s submission is the only one published where the subject of religion is raised. In fact the word “religion” appears five times in the document of nearly one-hundred pages and all of those instances are located within our submission. It is difficult to explain why no other interested body or individual made reference to religion in their submissions given that religion is considered an important component of education in Irish society. One explanation may lie in the fact that the consultation document itself adequately addressed the needs of children from religious families. And, not unexpectedly, nowhere in that document were the needs of children from non-religious families mentioned.

Humanist and parents of non-religious children can take some comfort in the fact that the education officers of NCCA were sufficiently convinced of the merits of our position to agree to include our written submission. It is our plan to participate in the review of other consultation documents as well as in the development of the syllabus to assure that the stated objectives of “meeting the needs of all children” are met. We have registered our interest in this regard with NCCA to which they have responded positively.

Nicolas Johnson is a member of the Board of The Humanist Association of Ireland