Gaelscoils to get guidelines on English
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is working on the new guidelines as the minister’s officials seek legal advice on the subject in relation to a Kerry gaelscoil.
Parents of pupils at Gaelscoil Uí Easmainn in Tralee complained in 2004 that junior and senior infants were not being taught any English as part of the school’s policy of total immersion.
They claimed this was depriving their children of the two-and-a-half hours’ English tuition a week according to the primary school curriculum.
The NCCA is working separately on a review of language and literacy in all-Irish primary schools, following their discovery during a curriculum review last year that there were difficulties with English in some of these schools.
More than 100 students, parents and teachers have responded to a survey on the issue after questionnaires were sent out in June. The council has also completed research on the issue, the first part of which was published last week.
It points out that the levels of Irish used in gaelscoil-eanna may be dependent on the level of home support in the language, among other factors.
However, it does not lean towards any particular side of the debate, in favour or against the kind of total immersion policy in use at Gaelscoil Uí Easmainn.
Following visits to the school by its inspectors in the past year, the Department of Education has told the school it must implement the full curriculum for all classes.
But it has sought legal advice following the school’s response, with withdrawal of funding believed to be up for consideration, if the policy is not amended.
NCCA chief executive Anne Looney said it is planned to present their advice on literacy in all-Irish schools, based on its own research and the survey findings, to Ms Hanafin by the end of the year.
The guidelines on English teaching are expected to be based on that advice.
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