Work is continuing over the summer so that a new ag science syllabus will be ready to roll by September 2017. It is expected that a draft specification will be completed by this November.

The current syllabus is outdated, having been in place for the last 40 years.

The NCCA agricultural science development group has met on five occasions so far. This includes its discussion of the consultation on the background paper, which took place at the end of 2014.

A report on the consultation was published on the NCCA website in March.

The broad areas of the syllabus are agreed and the three main categories are soils, grass and other crops and animals.

Key areas

Dr Vanessa Woods, chief executive of Agri Aware who is project officer with the National Council of Curriculum and Assessment, said: “Key areas such as sustainability, genetics, policies, environment and health, and safety on the farm are seen as important cross-cutting themes, among others. Indeed, the complete absence of equine in the current syllabus has also been discussed by the development group and we will consider the most appropriate strategy to address this.”

Draft learning outcomes are being developed over the summer within each of the main areas of study, which were agreed by the development group. These will be presented at the next development group meeting in September.

Following a public consultation between November and January of this year, a report will be prepared and the development group will be reconvened to finalise the draft specification for approval by the council of the NCCA. It will then be sent to the Department for approval and introduction to schools.