The place of the arts in Irish education

The publication of the Benson Report in 1979 followed a decade of change and upheaval in Irish Education. A report on Investment in Education had been commissioned by the Irish government following Ireland’s participation in the Washington Policy Conference on Economic Growth in 1961 and the report was published in January 1966. The Investment in Education report was supported financially by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), then a relatively new international organisation of which Ireland was a member. The publication of the report triggered a tsunami of change in Irish education – not least of which was the announcement by Minister for Education Donogh O'Malley that free second-level education for all, with free transport where required, would be introduced in September 1967. John Coolahan subsequently described the report as one of the foundation documents of modern Irish education. The first of the comprehensive and community schools were built in the following decade and capital grants were made available for building, extending and improving voluntary secondary schools. Vocational school students were now allowed to sit the Intermediate and Leaving Certificate and the second-level school curriculum was revised. The first of the Regional Technical Colleges had been built and means-tested grants were available for university attendance. A new and exciting curriculum had been introduced for primary schools in 1971 and for the first time since the foundations of the State, the arts were highlighted as central to children’s learning. It was an exciting decade in Irish education and the publication of the Benson Report was timely.