AQW 6945/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 20/02/2024
Answered On Date: 28/02/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education whether he will consider reinstating science as a statutory core subject in the primary curriculum.

Answer:

The Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 sets out the curriculum as high-level areas of learning. In primary schools, at foundation stage and key stages 1 and 2, ‘science and technology’ is already a compulsory contributory element within the World Around Us area of learning.

Pupils must be provided with opportunities to develop an understanding of interdependence, place, movement and energy, and change over time.

The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) provides curriculum support and teaching materials for use in schools on all areas of the statutory curriculum, including science and technology. CCEA’s website hosts a range of useful and relevant resources around science and technology across all primary key stages. It is, however, a matter for individual schools to determine which resources they wish to use to support their delivery of the curriculum.