Irish Examiner view: Lack of urgency in debate on teaching of Irish

Suggestion that Department of Education would prefer to leave current system of teaching as it is rather than rocking the boat

The standard of Irish achieved by students who have spent 14 years being taught the language was described this week as 'shameful'.

It has been a testing week for the education sector. Controversy flared in recent days when Education Minister Norma Foley pondered curtailing career breaks for teachers, while staff shortages are so acute in schools all over Ireland that importing teachers from the UK to fill positions is being considered.

Now we have been told by Mícheál Ó Foighil, manager of Coláiste Lurgan in Connemara, that the standard of Irish is “shameful”, adding that the minister for education should be concerned by the level of Irish achieved by students who have spent 14 years being taught the language.

Mr Ó Foighil might be seen by some as having a vested interest in the area — Coláiste Lurgan is one of the best-known Irish colleges — but he is surely not wrong to point out that students who have been given lessons in a language every day in school for almost a decade and a half should be proficient in that language. Or at least more proficient than many people appear to be when it comes to the Irish language.

Debates on the place of Irish in the curriculum have a long pedigree down the years, whether those debates centre on why Irish should be taught in school, on whether the subject should be compulsory or optional, or on whether to put the emphasis on conversational skills in Irish rather than grammar and the written word.

Such abstract discussions have not always been matched by concrete action, however. One of Mr Ó Foighil’s telling points was his suggestion that the Department of Education would prefer to leave the current system of teaching as it is rather than rocking the boat by introducing a new system.

This lack of initiative seems odd, as one of the most common contributions to any debate on the teaching of Irish involves a contributor’s dissatisfaction with how the language was taught to them in school. The implicit suggestion here is that all other subjects are taught in a better way, but it is more important to note the lack of urgency in introducing significant changes in how the language is taught.

Until such change occurs we can expect more contributions along the lines of those of Mr Ó Foighil.