Irish-only schools not opposed to English

IN his letter (November 26), Maurice Fitzgerald refers, erroneously, to Irish-only schools being opposed to the teaching of English.

This is not the case.

Gaelscoileanna present a choice to parents who wish to give their children a good grounding in all subjects. The full English language curriculum is taught to every child in every gaelscoil. The issue is not whether English is taught, but rather when is the optimum time to introduce it as a subject.

Research shows that children who have learnt through the early immersion system practised in many gaelscoileanna — where all teaching in the early infant years is through Irish — actually achieve significantly higher than average standards of English.

In societies where the prevalence of a majority language is all encompassing, early immersion represents the best tried-and-tested method of encouraging bilingualism and indeed multilingualism. This is proven in Britain, Canada, the Basque region and around the world. To suggest that support for immersion education (and the resulting bilingualism) is “hypocritical” and smacks of “linguistic fundamentalism” is totally unfounded.

Parents have a right to choose a form of education wholly within the national curriculum that happens to support the national language.

This is a positive choice and one which supports other subjects and languages, as well as Irish.

Mícheál Ó Broin

Uachtarán

Gaelscoileanna Teo

Rath Chormac

Co Shligigh