Sir, I wish to refer to the letter from the Minister for Education, Ms Bhreathnach (May 4th), in the light of representations made to her by the Association of Geography Teachers of Ireland and others, regarding the position of geography in the Junior Certificate as proposed in the White Paper.
The White Paper stresses the importance of relevance, the environment, our membership of the European Union, the need to encourage North South co-operation and to create awareness of global issues. Geography is the subject best suited to examining these topics and so merits its place in the core for Junior Cert.
Most of the recent publicity has been about history. However the motion carried at the ASTI conference referred to history and geography and in a Dail reply on February 20th, Ms Bhreathnach referred to "history and geography". Can the Minister therefore reassure us, as geography teachers, (along with the parents and students) that, like history, geography "continues to be a compulsory subject in the junior cycle in those schools where it has always been compulsory in the past"? Yours, etc., President, Association of Geography Teachers of Ireland, Weston Heights, Lucan Co Dublin.