Hanafin will not reconsider Gaelscoil decision

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has rejected calls to withdraw a directive that pupils of all-Irish schools should be taught English from the second term of junior infants.

The policy issued to schools in the summer is the subject of a judicial review likely to be heard in the High Court in the coming months.

It means that Gaelscoileanna and Gaeltacht schools can no longer delay English classes for pupils until senior infants or first class, which most of them currently do in a practice known as early immersion.