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Under the Education Act 1998, the Minister for Education and Skills may set down the curriculum for recognised schools. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is a statutory body, whose function is to advise the Minister of Education and Skills in matters relating to the curriculum for early childhood education, primary and post-primary schools, and the assessment procedures employed in schools and examinations on subjects that are part of the curriculum. This includes the subjects to be offered, the syllabus for each subject and the guidance and counselling provision to be offered.

Under the Education Act 1998 the Minister:

• Must take into account the desirability of helping schools to provide other subjects that the Board of Management thinks are appropriate
• Must take into account the ethos of the school
• Can give directions to schools to ensure that the subjects and syllabuses are appropriate and relevant to the educational and vocational needs of those schools
• Must ensure that the amount of instruction time given to curriculum subjects is sufficient to allow for reasonable instruction in subjects that are related to the ethos of the school
• Must not force any student to attend classes in any subject that clashes with the beliefs of the parents.

Content of curriculum

The revised primary school curriculum was introduced into national schools in 1999. It consists of 6 curriculum areas that are further divided into 11 subjects. These are:

• Language: Gaeilge (pdf), English (pdf)
• Mathematics: Mathematics (pdf)
• Social, Environmental and Scientific Education: History (pdf), Geography (pdf), Science (pdf)
• Arts Education: Music (pdf), Visual Arts (pdf), Drama (pdf)
• Physical Education: Physical Education (pdf)
• Social Personal and Health Education: Social, Personal and Health Education (pdf)

There are guidelines on the time to be allocated to each of the curriculum areas.

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