New urgency must be given to the implementation of the revised primary school curriculum, according to the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI). It must be a matter of concern, the council warns, that no plan appears to exist for the implementation of the curriculum.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Education and Science, the National Council for Curriculum Development "has not presented the new curriculum to the Department yet."

Albert O Ceallaigh, chief executive of the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, says that the curriculum will be handed over to the Minister before Christmas. Already a national co-ordinator of training, Aine Lawlor, has been appointed and according to O Ceallaigh, the Department is gearing up for implementation.

"We're completing all of the statements for the curriculum for all the subjects and for all the classes," he says. "We've completed a set of teacher guidelines for each of the subjects which will be used in the in-service courses and we've completed our overview, which sets out its developmental base."

In a statement issued yesterday, the ICSTI calls on the Minister to introduce the new curriculum quickly and to give it "new impetus and urgency." It urges the Minister to put in place immediately the procedures and resources for retraining teachers so that this process can begin.

"It will take several years for the full primary school curriculum to become effective," the ICSTI says in its statement. All 21,000 teachers will be required to be familiar with the whole curriculum, it points out. The Minister should ensure that teachers get adequate training to allow them implement the new curriculum, the ICSTI says.

The existing curriculum, introduced in 1971, contains some elements of nature and environment studies. The revised curriculum includes a subject - Social, Environment and Scientific Education (SESE) - which covers a wider range of topics than the natural sciences. It ties in with other parts of the curriculum, principally maths, geography and health education.

"Already there have been delays in completing the revision of the curriculum," says the ICTSI. The new curriculum was intended for implementation from September 1995. "Now there are warnings that the implementation may not be ready to begin next autumn. It is vitally important that a coherent plan is put in place."

In particular, the ICSTI recommends that the science syllabus be given priority, both in respect of the effort given to preparing teachers and in respect of the timetable for implementation. The scale of the change facing primary schools cannot be over-stated.