HTI: Cultural heritage at risk if history dropped

History should be kept as a core subject when the new Junior Cycle is introduced.

That is the call from the History Teachers of Ireland who are appearing before a Dáil committee today.

The HTI said that there is a risk of losing our cultural heritage if history is dropped as an obligatory subject.

Over 65,000 Junior and Leaving Cert students are sitting their exam on the subject this afternoon.

Niamh Crowley from the HTI said reducing history to an option means our children could lose out – especially with the number of commemorations happening over the next ten years.

"It would be a very unfortunate legacy of the decade of commemoration if at the end of the decade a coherent study of the discipline of history in schools was not the entitlement of every one of our young people," she said.