Parents and teachers divided over Hanafin directive for all-Irish schools

A MAJOR row has erupted between parents and schools over proposed changes to rules on the teaching of English in all-Irish schools.

The Gaelscoileanna organisation reacted angrily to news that Education Minister Mary Hanafin is to tell member schools they must begin teaching English no later than the second term of junior infants.

The directive will effectively ban a policy of total immersion in Irish, used up to the end of senior infants in many of the country’s 163 gaelscoileanna and 150 Gaeltacht primary schools.