New approach needed to teaching of Irish

I AM surprised by Enda Kenny’s proposal that Irish not be taken by all Leaving Cert students in future. If such a proposal were implemented the result would be the marginalisation of Irish as a subject in our schools.

There have been problems in the teaching of maths in recent years and a new syllabus is being designed. Would this approach in the case of Irish not be preferable?

Irish, like any other language, is acquired by practice. You cannot cram a language. Students would be under tremendous pressure in the context of the points system to choose a subject that can be crammed.