Minister McEntee welcomes publication of curriculum resource on Mother and Baby homes
- Foilsithe:
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 20 Bealtaine 2025
Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee has today welcomed the publication by the NCCA of a curriculum resource to support post-primary schools in enabling students to learn about Mother and Baby homes
Minister McEntee said:
“It is vital that our young people learn about the history of this State in every aspect, and in order to provide this teaching and learning, teachers must be supported with resources such as this one which provide detailed guidance and material for use in their classroom.
“This resource will provide teachers and Junior Cycle students with relevant and appropriate material, which uses the authentic voices of survivors to shed light on this extremely sensitive and important part of our history. On behalf of the whole education system, I would like to thank those survivors who bravely assisted in this work.”
The resource consists of units of learning for Junior Cycle History, and for Junior Cycle Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE). These units include slide shows, detailed guidance for teachers, stimulus materials for specific classroom activities and suggestions for related Classroom-Based Assessments. The resource also includes a support document for Junior Cycle English teachers who may wish to design their own unit(s) of learning on the topic of Mother and Baby homes and/or other historic institutions.
The resource was developed in collaboration with the University of Galway’s Tuam Oral History project and Justice for the Magdalene’s Research CLANN project, both groups involved in advocating with and for survivors of Ireland’s historic institutions, including Mother and Baby homes.
The Department of Education requested this piece of work be done by the NCCA following on from recommendations set out in the Final Report on the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes (January 2021). The curriculum resource can be found on the NCCA’s Junior Cycle Supporting the Curriculum page.