Colman Noctor: We need physical education and media literacy on the new primary curriculum

The revised curriculum is expected to be rolled out in schools in 2025. Given that the last review was in 1999, this initiative is long overdue. 

While the introduction of these new subjects is a positive development, two critical areas are in danger of being overlooked: physical education and media literacy.

While PE has long been part of children’s education, the new curriculum offers an opportunity for a more purposeful focus on this crucial subject.

Media literacy is not on the current curriculum nor included in the proposed new one, which I believe is a missed opportunity. Focusing on these two areas in primary school could greatly contribute to improving children's mental health.

As we progress through our increasingly digital world, we need to equip children with the skills to navigate this space with the necessary protective tools and knowledge.

As they have become more digitally dependent, children’s activity levels have also decreased, culminating in a sedentary lifestyle. 

The consequences of this trend were captured in a 2023 UCD study that found that only one in five primary school children in Ireland were meeting the minimum WHO recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity per day.

The new proposed curriculum includes an increase in the time allocated to physical education for primary school students. While the increased time is a positive move, the approach and how this extra time will be used will be central to its success.  

The effectiveness of PE in primary schools has a lot to do with the attitude or approach of individual teachers and school communities.

In some school communities, PE is viewed as a distraction from the core academic curriculum and is often seen as a ‘chore’ to be endured. 

In other schools, PE consists of repeated GAA or soccer games, which might appeal to children who enjoy these sports but is of little value to those who do not. 

The narrow range of sports may inadvertently negatively affect the child’s developing relationship with physical movement and activity.   

Given the decrease in children’s informal activity levels over recent years, we need to pay attention to developing their fundamental movement skills. PE classes are an ideal place for this to happen. 

These skills include locomotor movements (run, hop, jump, leap), object-control activity (throw, catch, kick, strike), and stability exercises (static balance). 

Children need to be taught and given opportunities to engage in these activities from a young age. Mastery of these fundamental movements can have many benefits for children outside of simply becoming proficient at certain sports. 

 International research has found that physical activity is vital for enhancing children’s physical, social, cognitive, and psychological development. 

According to the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, children who regularly participate in physical activity have reduced anxiety and depression and improved self-esteem and confidence.

Children must have an opportunity to be introduced to the benefits of movement outside of formal sporting environments. 

When I ask children about their physical activity, I often hear the reply ‘I am not sporty’. However, as many avid adult walkers will attest, movement is achievable without taking part in an organised sport. 

Teach media literacy in schools

It’s unfortunate that media literacy does not feature prominently in the proposed curriculum. This is a crucial subject in helping children negotiate the modern world. Given the pervasive role technology plays in our lives, it is vital that they are given support in this area. 

 While work has already been done to teach children the basics of ‘internet safety’, internet technology throws up many other challenges besides simply keeping safe.  Young children are being bombarded with information online and are exposed to content far beyond their level of maturity. We must not only teach children about ‘keeping safe’ online but also help them become savvy about the trustworthiness of digital content. 

While teaching them how to identify a possible internet predator and what to do if they experience cyberbullying is crucial, they also need to question strategies promoted by influencers and other content creators. As adults, we may quickly realise this content is grossly inaccurate, but it can be potentially dangerous to an impressionable child. In a technological world that promotes popularity over truth, the onus is on the individual user to examine and critique online information, and we need to help children do this effectively.

 Including media literacy in the new curriculum would encourage children to question the reliability of the content they are viewing and help them identify airbrushed or manipulated images. Identifying reliable and trustworthy information will become even more important with the growth of artificial intelligence and the cynical use of deep fakes (videos of people in which their faces or bodies have been digitally altered so that they appear to be someone else, typically used maliciously or to spread false information).

Skills to recognise falsified data, identify fake news, and generate responsible internet content

We need to learn from the digitalisation modules that are part of the primary school curriculum in some of the Nordic countries.  These classes teach students to develop critical, responsible attitudes towards digital technology so that they can see opportunities, understand risks, and evaluate information.

This year, California signed a law that mandates public schools to teach media literacy, describing it as providing children with skills to recognise falsified data, identify fake news and generate responsible internet content. It’s a move experts say is imperative at a time when distrust in the media is at an all-time high and ‘new technologies pose unprecedented challenges to identifying false information’. 

The US Surgeon General has also cited teaching digital and media literacy to combat the youth mental health crisis, and the American Psychological Association has urged parents and schools to teach media literacy before they expose young people to social media platforms. 

This public consultation process on the new curriculum is a unique opportunity to address the societal issues that have arisen in the last 25 years and to build a curriculum that is responsive to these changes. 

Of course, a goal without a plan is merely a wish and parallel investment in the human resources (teaching staff) is required to implement these changes.  But resources should not stand in the way of a unique opportunity to prepare children for the modern world. 

If we can nurture their strengths, get them to critically question the information they are exposed to and move more, we will have done a lot to promote the mental wellbeing of children in Ireland.  

There is an opportunity here to offer children a collection of life skills to be digitally savvy and create a positive relationship with activity and movement which could stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives.  

• Dr Colman Noctor is a child psychotherapist