Controversial new Irish syllabus to be reviewed
The row-back could cause tensions within Government and adds to confusion for students preparing for the 2012 Leaving Certificate, already uncertain if bonus points for higher level maths will be on offer from colleges by then.
In 2007 the then education minister Mary Hanafin introduced the change to the syllabus to shift the emphasis to spoken and commutative use of Irish.
Under the changes, marks for the compulsory oral test at Leaving Certificate will rise from 25% to 40% of students’ final grades from 2012 and the listening exam drops to 10% from as high as 20% for ordinary level students.
But the Education Minister has told her curriculum advisers to begin a review of the revised syllabus following concerns raised with her and Gaeltacht Minister Pat Carey about possible negative impacts for native Irish speakers and other students proficient in the language. More than 50 of the country’s 730 second level schools teach students entirely through Irish, including almost 30 in Gaeltacht areas.
The increased weighting awarded to oral Irish in the Leaving Certificate was made at the expense of sections on the history of the language and most of the syllabus’s literature element.
Opponents of the changes claim the revised syllabus is not challenging enough for students who are strong at Irish and is inadequate to maintain a rich speech and writing culture.
The changes were brought in by Ms Hanafin against the advice of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the statutory body now being asked to examine their rollout.
“The Tánaiste has asked the NCCA to undertake an early review of the implementation of the revised syllabus, taking account of the issues raised by concerned groups and also of the experiences of the first cohort of candidates under the revised assessment system,” said Ms Coughlan’s spokesperson.
While the changes are to go ahead for now, a review of any new syllabus as soon as it begins is believed to be unprecedented and the council could discuss its terms as early as next month.
Meitheal na Gaeilge ATAL – an umbrella group for concerned schools organisations and others – said the review is little consolation as the inevitable damage of the changes will be hard to reverse.
“Our problem isn’t with 40% for oral Irish but how the rest of the syllabus is being chopped without piloting it in some schools to see the impacts. The Government’s strategy for Irish seeks to increase the number of speakers but I can’t see how they’ll do that by dumbing it down in schools,” said Meitheal na Gaeilge chairwoman Anna Ní Ghallachair.
Ms Coughlan has also turned down the request of lobby groups for a new optional Leaving Certificate for fluent users of the language. Her spokesperson said she is not convinced of the merits, given the duplication of resources that would arise and the possible advantage it might give some students in accumulating points for college entry.
