The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) today made a formal presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection to retain Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) as a compulsory state examinable subject in the Junior Cycle to ensure that Ireland continues to adequately meet its human rights obligations to provide education that strengthens human rights.
Des Hogan, Acting Chief Executive of the IHRC stated:
"While the IHRC welcomes the flexibility of the new Junior Cycle, we remain concerned about the proposed place that Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE) will take in the revised curriculum. Ireland has international human rights obligations to ensure that education strengthens respect for human rights and CSPE is the only explicit expression of human rights education in the post-primary curriculum. CSPE should not be relegated to the status of a short course which is non-compulsory and non-State-examinable. Rather, efforts to mainstream human rights values in the curriculum should be complementary and build on CSPE."
Mr Hogan continued:
"CSPE is the only opportunity available to every student to equip themselves with the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to be active participatory citizens in promoting human rights, equality and global justice values. CSPE is a very important space for teachers and students to explore contemporary issues in Irish society within a human rights framework including cultural and religious diversity, sexual orientation, poverty and global interdependence. It is a space where prejudice, racism, and bullying can be tackled by giving students the know-how to defend their own and others’ human rights."
Des Hogan concluded:
"CSPE raises the level of political and social literacy among students, fostering in them the potential to actively engage in democratic society. In this regard, CSPE is an important foundation for the new and much anticipated Senior Cycle subject ‘Politics and Society’ and it is unclear in this context why the Government would downgrade CSPE. If the State proceeds to render CSPE non-compulsory and non-State-examinable, it must be in a position to clearly demonstrate how it proposes to adequately meet its human rights obligations under international human rights conventions."
ENDS/
For further information please contact Fidelma Joyce, IHRC, Mob: 087 783 4939
Notes to Editor
- Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) provides that:…education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.ICESCR also provides that education should promote participation, tolerance and friendship among peoples. Several treaty bodies have elaborated reporting guidelines, general comments, or recommendations concerning human rights education, training, and information.
- Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires that children and young people’s education should be directed to, inter alia,
- (1)(b) development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms…
- (1)(d) the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin…
- The CRC also provides that children and young people should be able to express their views freely on all matters affecting them and that those views be taken seriously.
- The General Comment by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the aims of education elaborates on the meaning of Article 29 of the CRC, quoted above, in relation to human rights education:
- Human rights education should provide information on the content of human rights treaties. But children should also learn about human rights by seeing human rights standards implemented in practice, whether at home, in school or within the community. Human rights education should be a comprehensive, lifelong process and start with the reflection of human rights values in the daily life and experience of the child.
- See IHRC Submission Civic, Social and Political Education in the New Junior Certificate Programme, March 2012 at www.ihrc.ie
- The positive impact of CSPE is revealed in international research. In an International Civic and Citizenship Study of 14 year olds across 38 countries, Ireland ranked 7th out of the countries studied, with its final score substantially ahead of the international average.