No plans to cut history at school, says Ruarí Quinn

Minister for Education Ruairí­ Quinn has said he has “no agenda” to “get rid” of history as a second-level school subject in his reform of the Junior Cycle.

“People around me know I’m a history bore,” Mr Quinn said yesterday, emphasising that a new focus on mathematics was not at the expense of other subjects.

Mr Quinn said that his only “agenda” was to allow students freedom of choice.

He was speaking during a question-and-answer session at the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Catholic Secondary Schools conference in Galway.

“We are not getting rid of history,” Mr Quinn said, explaining that “if you start making a subject mandatory in the new Junior Cycle, where do you stop?”

He said he believed history to be “absolutely essential”, and 90 per cent of all Junior Cycle students were taking it.

However, he had been assured that a good grounding in and comprehension of mathematics was a “critical component” at foundation level.

Mr Quinn also defended his call for honours level mathematics to be a requirement for teacher training, but said that the final decision would be made by the Teaching Council.

Earlier, the association president Fr Paul Connell told the Minister that the financial burden on schools was at crisis point. Funding cuts and increased pressure on hard-pressed parents had left schools reliant on cake sales and “bring and buys”.