Concern over ‘competence and confidence’ of some teachers in all-Irish schools

Significant numbers of primary schoolteachers do not feel they have a sufficiently high level of competence to teach in all-Irish schools despite being qualified to do so, according to a draft Department of Education policy on developing the language.
The document, entitled Towards a Policy on Irish-medium Education Outside of the Gaeltacht, notes that about 6 per cent of all students in these areas receive their education through Irish in more than 150 primary schools and almost 30 second-level schools.
Primary teachers do not currently require any additional qualification to teach in a Gaelscoil or Irish-medium school at primary level.
“All primary schoolteachers are supposed to be trained to teach through the medium of Irish,” the draft document states. “At primary level, while all teachers are qualified to teach in Irish-medium schools, it is clear that a significant proportion of teachers do not feel they have a sufficiently high level of competence in Irish to do so.
“This is despite the fact that an entry standard in Irish is set for the bachelor of education or professional master of education for primary teaching, and despite the supports (including Gaeltacht periods) provided for the language during those programmes.”
The minimum entry standards for admission to these programmes are a H4 (60-70 per cent) in Leaving Cert Irish or equivalent.
At second level, the draft policy notes that it is required that teachers in Irish-medium schools have a certificate for Irish for post-primary teaching, in addition to a bachelor of education or professional master of education.
However, the document states: “It is not clear, however, whether this requirement is being consistently implemented in all schools, and it seems that there is a lack of awareness of the requirement.”
It goes on to state that “there are difficulties at post-primary level in terms of teachers’ competence and confidence in the language, and additional challenges in terms of the high level of competence required in subject-specific language to teach subjects at Leaving Certificate level”.
The document says higher education institutions, the Teaching Council and other stakeholders will be consulted to identify ways to develop teachers’ competence in Irish as part of initial teacher education programmes.
Minister for Education Norma Foley is facing growing calls pressure to publish the draft policy on Irish language education.
It is intended that the new policy will improve high-quality Irish-medium education in schools and early learning settings, while exploring how the establishment of Gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí can be increased.
In a letter seen by The Irish Times, groups representing secondary and third-level students, teacher organisations, language groups and educational experts have called on the Minister to “urgently” release the long-awaited policy.
The signatories, including the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union, the Union of Students in Ireland, DCU Irish language education research unit Sealbhú, teacher representative group An Gréasán and school patron bodies An Foras Pátrúnachta and Gaeloideachas, are calling for an opportunity to review the policy and provide further input.
Seeking an “urgent” meeting, the signatories said the framework document was “disappointing” and a consultation organised by the Department of Education in September “did not increase our confidence” that the process would result in the publication of a “satisfactory policy”.
In response, Ms Foley said work was continuing in the department on developing the new policy.
She said feedback from participants had been gathered at the event in September and would now be considered.
“It is now up to officials in my department to draft a policy that will set out our vision for the Irish-medium sector and identify how we can move towards that vision,” she said, in a recent response to a parliamentary question.