Almost 25% of primary teachers deficient in Irish

ALMOST a quarter of primary school pupils are being taught by teachers with poor use of Irish, according to Department of Education inspectors.

In a worrying study of how Irish is being taught in 40 primary schools, the department found that almost one-in-four teachers had weaknesses in their own language competency and 9% of teachers had “significant deficiencies in their ability to teach Irish”.

The inspections were carried out in 2005, a year after a significant revision of the Irish curriculum.

Reacting to the findings last night the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) said members had only two days of training in approaches to teaching the language when the data was collected.

The report — published by the department inspectorate — said it is disquieting that the standard of teaching and learning was only fair or poor in half of the classes observed.

“In 8% of classes, significant difficulties were observed in the teaching and learning of Irish. Pupils’ achievements in all four strands was particularly low in these classes,” the report states.

There was also concern that formal teaching of listening skills was weak or fair in 52% of classrooms, as the activities used by teachers lacked variety and purpose.

“It is a cause for concern that, in almost one-third of classrooms, pupils were taught Irish through the English language. These pupils had few opportunities to experience Irish being spoken as a living language,” the inspectors wrote.

Other findings were that almost half of teachers did not give children opportunities to practice and develop their language skills, there was not enough emphasis on teaching verbs and pupils learned very little from language games used in many classes, although they did enjoy them.

Reading skills had not been taught in half the assessed classes, where pupils relied on skills they had acquired in English to help them read Irish.

Despite the findings, inspectors said that most schools strongly supported the teaching and promotion of Irish, although a small number of schools reported that some parents questioned the relevance of learning the language if their children had difficulties with numeracy and English literacy.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said steps have been taken to address issues raised in this and another report on second level Irish since the preliminary findings were received last year.

These include 30 staff to support the teaching of Irish in primary schools since last autumn, a team of officers giving training for second level Irish teachers and the Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta which provides textbooks and teaching resources for the subject.

INTO general secretary John Carr said part of the difficulty faced by schools is the shortage of qualified teachers, with more than 800 positions filled by unqualified staff in the past year.

“It is also essential that schools are given the supports needed to fully implement the curriculum, which will mean greater government commitment in terms of teaching materials such as visual aids and computer software,” he said.