Hanafin stung by lack of interest in Irish teaching jobs

THE Department of Education has only been able to fill six of the 30 jobs it had planned to help primary teachers with their Irish language skills due to a lack of interest.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin has appealed to teachers to apply for the posts, which she announced last April as part of a series of measures to improve the teaching and learning of the language at primary level.

But despite a number of advertisements since last summer, only six of the jobs have been taken up in the meantime.

“It’s part of our schools support service but the interest in the jobs has been poor, compared to other in-service supports. There are around 600 people in the entire support service and we have no problem recruiting for other areas,” the minister said.

At the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) annual conference in Killarney, she called on teachers with good Irish to contact her department about the vacancies.

“I think maybe there’s a lack of confidence among some people about it. There are really superb teachers out there but perhaps the idea of going into a school and teaching somebody else what to do might be a deterrent,” she said.

The six such “cuiditheóirí” who have started the jobs in recent months go into classes where teachers have sought assistance with Irish and look at how staff might be helped.

Like other jobs in the schools curriculum support service, the work is done on Department of Education-approved release from normal teaching duties, usually for periods of between three and five years.

Ms Hanafin said yesterday that she will decide before this summer’s general election if a €1.9 million euro centre announced in 1999 to offer in-service Irish language will go ahead.

The sod was turned on the proposed location in Ballyvourney, Co Cork by then minister Michael Woods in 2000, but Ms Hanafin has said some of the work it would have done has since been taken up by other bodies.

The Department of Education has spent around €600,000 on the planning stages of the project to date but the minister has been considering the position since her officials met all parties last summer.

At yesterday’s conference, meanwhile, IPPN director Sean Cottrell suggested the Department of Education should co-ordinate enrolments for the growing number of children from non-Irish families, as some schools are directing these pupils towards other schools in their locality.

Under the National Development Plan announced this week, an extra 550 language support teachers will be appointed to help these children develop their English up to 2013.