Conradh na Gaeilge welcomes the resources and supports promised in the Irish-medium Policy and Action Plan published today by the Department of Education and Youth but they are by no means sufficient to address the current dire situation Irish is in in the education system
President of Conradh na Gaeilge, Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, said:
“We welcome any action that will help Irish in the education system and therefore commend the new projects and resources announced today by the Minister of Education and Youth as part of the Policy for Irish-medium Education outside the Gaeltacht and the Action Plan for Irish in English-medium Schools.
That said, we do not believe that the Action Plan is going to solve the current plight of the Irish language in the education system. The Irish curriculum in the current education system is inflexible, unpleasant and failing over 60,000 second level pupils who are exempt from learning Irish. During the consultation process, we called for a new flexible system, based on the Common European Framework of Reference of Languages, that would be able to cater for pupils with additional needs, pupils entering the system late and which would provide a satisfactory Irish language learning experience for all pupils during the consultation on the Action Plan. Further, we called for an expert committee to be established immediately to develop this new system - but these are not included in the new Action Plan.
In addition, only 6% of pupils are receiving their education through Irish, over 100 years since the State was founded. Although the last Government committed to work towards doubling the number of pupils in Irish-medium schools, the numbers attending Irish-medium education actually fell by 3% during their term, as no serious attempt was made to act on their own target. Despite the new policy for Irish-medium education containing a ‘vision’ for ‘high quality, Irish-medium education for all,’ the policy contains no measurable or ambitious target to significantly increase the number of pupils in Irish-medium schools. This is a big difference from the situation in Wales, where the Welsh Government has a plan to increase the percentage of pupils in Welsh-medium schools from 23% to 40% by 2050, because they have an ambitious vision and the resources to achieve it. Instead of including such a target in the Policy for Irish-medium education, a task force is to be established to look at the different models that could be used.”
Julian de Spáinn, Secretary General of Conradh na Gaeilge, said:
“We are calling on the Minister for Education and Youth, Helen McEntee, to establish an expert committee to develop a policy for Irish in the education system, based on the Common European Framework of Reference, without further delay. This is the first necessary step for the development of the policy.
We are also calling on the Minister to ensure that the new Irish-medium task force’s main objective is to come back within the year set out for the work of this group with a clear, ambitious and measurable target for the growth of Irish-medium education. We believe that should be at least 20% within 20 years.”
Ends
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