In the same year that the country celebrates the centenary of the Easter Rising, students entering the senior cycle of their secondary-school education will be offered the option of taking on a new subject – Politics & Society.
The subject, which will be introduced in approximately 25 schools around the country, will ask students to become familiar with some of the most important political theorists in the history of thought, and to be able to critically analyse political concepts such as capitalism and globalisation.
Students in the schools offering the politics course will have the option to select it as an examinable subject for the Leaving Certificate, provided they are commencing their 5th Year syllabus in August 2016. The subject’s first state exam will be sat in the summer of 2018, with points accrued counting towards university admission via the CAO.
The National Council for Curriculum & Assessment (NCCA), the country’s steering body that oversees how new subjects are introduced into the Irish education system, has released course details on the new politics syllabus for the first time, though Politics has been in the pipeline as a potential subject for a number of years.
Students taking on the course will be required to engage with a subject tackling power and decision-making at international and local levels, human rights, globalisation, as well as various different political ideologies. The course will also take in a number of well-known political thinkers such as Karl Marx, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes.
On the NCCA website, where the body is inviting interested schools to apply to take on the subject, the council says that teachers with undergraduate or postgraduate degrees in politics, sociology, philosophy, or anthropology, and who have “expressed a genuine interest in teaching Politics and Society,” are encouraged to consider the subject as a teaching option.
Politics & Society will be offered at both ordinary and higher level, and 80% of its assessed grade will be determined by a terminal exam during the state-examinations period every June. The remaining 20% of the course will be earned by students by completing a citizenship project, which the NCCA says will encourage students to take an active role in the civic, political, and social aspects of their communities.
The NCCA has created a document outlining the syllabus and reasons for students to choose the subject. You can find the details here.
