The White Paper on Education (1995, p.10) sets out the following aims of education:
- to foster an understanding and critical appreciation of the values - moral, spiritual, religious, social and cultural - which have been distinctive in shaping Irish society and which have traditionally been accorded respect in society
- to nurture a sense of personal identity, self-esteem and awareness of one's particular abilities, aptitudes and limitations, combined with respect for the rights and beliefs of others
- to promote quality and equality for all, including those who are disadvantaged, through economic, social, physical and mental factors, in the development of their full educational potential
- to develop intellectual skills combined with a spirit of inquiry and the capacity to analyse issues critically and constructively
- to develop expressive, creative and artistic abilities to the individual's full capacity
- to foster a spirit of self-reliance, innovation, initiative and imagination
- to promote physical and emotional health and well being
- to provide students with the necessary education and training to support the country's economic development and to enable them to make their particular contribution to society in an effective way
- to create tolerant, caring and politically aware members of society
- to ensure that Ireland's young people acquire a keen awareness of their national and European heritage and identity, coupled with a global awareness and a respect for and care for the environment
It follows that the curriculum of the school should reflect and make provision for the realisation of these aims.
In the context of these aims, human development is the development of the awareness of self as separate and unique, with the capacity for reflection, imagination and creativity and openness to ideas of truth, goodness, and beauty. From earliest times, the experience of the spiritual and the human search for meaning have frequently found expression in a religious interpretation of life. The history of humanity has been indelibly marked by the contributions of religious traditions. In Ireland, Christianity is part of our rich cultural heritage and has played a significant role in shaping our vision of ourselves, our world, and our relationships with others. However, effective functioning in an increasingly complex culture demands that people have an understanding of a variety of religious traditions and an appreciation of the richness of the major religious traditions encountered not just in Ireland but in Europe and in the wider world. Increasingly, modern culture also calls for engagement with the secular response to human experience.
While it is the concern of the whole curriculum, built around the principles of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes, to promote personal growth and to facilitate the spiritual development of students, Religious Education is well placed to provide students with opportunities for reflection on human experience as well as for understanding and interpretation of that experience. Such opportunities encourage the students' participation in their own conscious and critical development.
Religious Education should ensure that students are exposed to a broad range of religious traditions and to the non-religious interpretation of life. It has a particular role to play in the curriculum in the promotion of tolerance and mutual understanding. It seeks to develop in students the skills needed to engage in meaningful dialogue with those of other, or of no, religious traditions.
Religious Education, in offering opportunities to develop an informed and critical understanding of the Christian tradition in its historical origins and its cultural and social expressions, should be part of a curriculum that seeks to promote the critical and cultural development of the person in his or her social and personal life.
Religious Education makes a significant contribution to a curriculum that seeks to provide for the moral development of students. It introduces a variety of ethical codes and norms for behaviour. Students are encouraged to engage critically with these moral systems in an effort to arrive at a thought-through moral stance that will serve as a foundation for the decisions they will face as adults and for the patterns of behaviour and commitment that will mark how they will relate to their local communities and to the world in general.
In summary, Religious Education can justly claim to be an integral part of any curriculum that aims to promote the holistic development of the person in the light of the stated aims of education. The assessment and certification of an Religious Education syllabus at national level would provide students and society with certificated statements of achievement based on the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes implicit in that syllabus.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FOR THE JUNIOR CERTIFICATE
The aim of Junior Certificate Religious Education is to provide students with a framework for encountering and engaging with the variety of religious traditions in Ireland and elsewhere. Such a framework would also prepare students for the Leaving Certificate course in Religious Education.
The syllabus for the Junior Certificate, in common with the range of subjects offered at this level, invites the students to reflect on their own experiences. The students' own experience of religion and their commitment to a particular religious tradition, and/or to a continuing search for meaning, will therefore be encouraged and supported.
Junior Certificate Religious Education seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of why people believe, as well as tolerance and respect for the values and beliefs of all. The syllabus is built around a framework of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes. As part of a programme of preparation for the responsibilities of citizenship, the course makes particular reference to the Christian tradition, acknowledging the unique role of this tradition and its denominational expressions in Irish life.
AIMS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
- To foster an awareness that the human search for meaning iscommon to all peoples, of all ages and at all times
- To explore how this search for meaning has found, and continues to find, expression in religion
- To identify how understandings of God, religious traditions, and in particular the Christian tradition, have contributed to the culture in which we live, and continue to have an impact on personal life-style, inter-personal relationships and relationships between individuals and their communities and contexts
- To appreciate the richness of religious traditions and to acknowledge the non-religious interpretation of life
- To contribute to the spiritual and moral development of the student
SYLLABUS OUTLINE
Syllabus sections may be taught in any order; it is not necessary to follow the sequence outlined below.
The course consists of two parts:
PART1
Students take any two of the following:
SECTION ACommunities of Faith
SECTION BFoundations of Religion Christianity
SECTION CFoundations of Religion Major World Religions
PART2
Students take all of the following:
SECTION DThe Question of Faith
SECTION EThe Celebration of Faith
SECTION FThe Moral Challenge