NEXT SEPTEMBER, all first-year Junior Certificate students will embark on a new subject - civics, social and political education (CSPE). To date, 284 schools are participating in the programme, which becomes compulsory for all students this autumn.

CSPE will be part of the core curriculum, and it will be assessed as a subject for the Junior Cert. Seventy hours will be devoted to the programme - about one period per week. It replaces the old civics programme, which effectively died a long, lingering death.

Stephen McCarthy, who is co-ordinating the in-service training for CSPE, says that the programme consists of four units: the individual and citizenship; the community; the State (Ireland) and "Ireland and the world".

"It takes a developmental approach, working from the individual outward," he explains. "It is based on human rights and responsibilities. We're all fairly okay on our rights, but most of us are not so good on the corresponding responsibilities.

The aim of the programme is to develop active citizens, he says, to develop a sense of belonging to the local, national, European and global community; to develop a capacity to gain access to information and structure and to foster an ability to participate fully in democratic society.

CSPE will be assessed by written examination (40 per cent of marks) and work done in school (60 per cent of marks). "We're trying to encourage group actions rather than individual actions. For the purposes of assessment, students will write individual reports or make short audio or video tapes," McCarthy explains. CSPE will first be assessed in 1999.

McCarthy says project work ranges from a school organising its own divorce referendum to an evaluation of the Mutton Island proposal in Galway. Students in St Colman's College in Fermoy, Co Cork, have prepared submissions for an earth charter - arising out of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. This submissions will make their way to the UN in October. In fact, 20 Irish schools have prepared submissions. "This gives students a sense of their possible role."

Brendan O'Regan, of the Civics Teachers Association, says that the activity-based nature of the programme helps in the classroom. The Department of Education has developed exemplar materials, but teachers may also devise their own material. This approach allows for materials to be kept up to date, as textbooks can date very quickly.

CBS Arklow, where O'Regan teaches, was one of the school involved in the Department's three-year pilot CSPE study (which began in 1993), and he says the introduction of the programme has been a positive experience.

School principals concerned about finding the time in already overcrowded curriculum are being urged to reclaim the old civics period. In many schools, this has been subsumed into other subjects or is being used for pastoral-care programmes.

According to McCarthy, one principal used the NCCA's document, Towards the New Century, to plan timetabling. He was able to find time for 10 Junior Cert subjects as well as CSPE and retain, his pastoral-care slot.

The Department of Education has devoted substantial resources to the programme, seconding a support team of McCarthy and six other teachers to deliver in-service and to provide back-up to teachers. Each school is being offered three days in-service for two teachers, and the support team will remain in place until 1999 to help iron out any problems.

There are no teachers specifically trained to teach CSPE. McCarthy says this is both a weakness and a strength - there is no lobby group, but the teachers which are opting for in-service are interested and eager. There is also a further training option for interested teachers - a diploma in CSPE is being run by UCC and Maynooth and supported by the Department of Education.

As to the future, McCarthy says that CSPE is provided for in the new primary curriculum and it will now be in the junior cycle at second level. It is also provided for in the Leaving Cert Applied Programme and in Transition Year, but he would like to see some provision made within the traditional Leaving Cert.