Irish oral preparation classes with Conradh na Gaeilge
September 19, 2013
Conradh na Gaeilge’s Leaving Certificate oral Irish preparation course will commence on Friday September 27.
Forty per cent of the Irish Leaving Cert exam is allocated to the oral examination. The course will cover every aspect of the oral examination and will provide the tools to gain confidence in the language. Classes will run each Friday for 10 weeks at Áras na nGael, 45 Dominick Street. Each class will last 1.5 hours, with two classes to choose from — 5pm or 6.30pm.
Early booking is advised, as there are limited spaces available. For more information contact Conradh na Gaeilge on 091 567824, conradh@bradan.iol.ie, or visit www.arasnangael.ie
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Permission granted for Coláiste na Coiribe
September 19, 2013
There was great celebration this week with the news that planning permission has been granted by An Bord Pleanála for the new Coláiste na Coiribe all Irish secondary school in Knocknacarra.
The bord granted permission with 19 conditions – three of which specifically deal with local residents’ concerns, such as the erection of signage preventing through traffic, construction of a gate, and the development of a traffic plan – for the school, which is set to cater for 720 students The development has been welcomed by Independent city councillor Catherine Connolly, who described it as “fantastic news”, which sees the “residents fully vindicated” after a “very long battle”. Planning permission for the school was granted by the Galway City Council in April, but residents of Fána Burca believed their concerns about the proposed building were not taken on board and so appealed the decision to ABP. The residents sought the development of a traffic plan to prevent school traffic using Fána Burca as a through way and/or drop-off point.
They also wanted a gate on the pedestrian/cycle entrance from the estate to the new school. This gate, residents argued, could be open during the day to allow full pedestrian/cycle access and closed in the evening. Their concerns were supported by Cllr Connolly who was a member of both the City Vocational Education Committee and the board of management of Colaiste na Coiribe from 1999 to 2009 “This was a very difficult decision for both the residents and myself as I had fought every step of the way for the new school,” she said. Cllr Connolly also facilitated a meeting between city planners and Fána Burca residents. With planning permission now granted for the school and residents concerns met, Cllr Connolly said the next step is to ensure “the rapid construction” of Coláiste na Coiribea “in accordance with the conditions and a celebration on its opening”.
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Slán le Foinse
September 19, 2013
Eagraíocht Gaeltachta i mbaol
September 19, 2013
Deireadh le nuachtán Foinse
September 18, 2013
Clárú do Ranganna Oíche i gCeatharlach
September 18, 2013
Deireadh Seachtaine do Dhaoine Fásta sa Ghaeltacht
September 18, 2013
Fundamental flaws must be addressed
September 17, 2013
If current proposals on school admissions are put into action, a valuable and historic opportunity will be lost.
Noel MaloneNoel Malone, Principal, Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, Co Limerick
It seems to many of the principals to whom I have spoken that if the current proposals on school admissions are implemented a valuable and historic opportunity will be lost.
Limerick has grappled with the issue of educational inequality for years. It is the only area where a common applications system applies, arising from an intolerable situation in which children found themselves without any second-level place.
The then minister insisted that all schools in Limerick city operate a common enrolment system, administered by Limerick Education Centre, the purpose of which was to ensure that all children had a school place. All students are placed, eventually, but it has also brought about considerable anguish and uncertainty among parents and children. If children do not get their first/second preference, they may be left with their least-favoured school – and travelling up to 12 miles from home by private bus.
Participant schools are accorded a certain level of protection from any perception of perpetuating inequality. The reality is much different. Schools still operate independently in terms of their admission criteria, and can decide their selection criteria with no independent scrutiny. It is only an issue for the so-called good schools, as they invariably have a surfeit of applications over places.
Some favour children living in certain affluent parishes, so-called traditional feeder schools, brothers/sisters of current or past pupils, sons/daughters of past pupils and so on, and finally, ‘all others.’ In effect, very few places exist in this category. So, some children have right of entry although they live some distance from the school and others are refused, even if they live close by, or attend the local feeder primary.
Surely it is the right of every parent to send their child to their local school, if they so choose? By ignoring this, the proposed legislation gives free rein to schools to continue what is effectively educational apartheid.
There is no justification for giving preference to siblings of former pupils, or indeed children of past pupils.
The proposed limit of 25pc is a capitulation to vested interests. Surely proximity to a school should have a higher ranking than whether a child’s father/mother attended? This is a means to reproduce a social class and cherry-pick the best students. Who will oversee this 25pc, and where is the transparency? Some schools will continue to favour the socially advantaged, academically gifted, or those with exceptional sporting prowess.
In the context of the Limerick Area Common Application System, I believe that the minister should insist on a common admissions policy across all participant schools, with geographical location claiming first priority, after brothers/sisters of existing students. A three-mile radius of any particular school in a city location, or, perhaps, 10 miles in a rural area, would be reasonable. Where there are too many applications for that school, other priorities can be addressed.
The minister has included the right of the Department of Education and Skills to impose a similar system elsewhere. This is to be welcomed. However, unless these fundamental flaws are addressed, the current highly iniquitous system will be preserved under a veneer of fairness.
The minister praises the “value of tradition”. But tradition can be merely an excuse to maintain the status quo.
First published in The Irish Independent, 11 September 2013
www.educationmatters.ie
Junior Cert replacement of ‘huge benefit’ to pupils
September 17, 2013
The replacement of the Junior Certificate by schools assessing their own students will bring major benefits, says the head of the organisation leading the changes.
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment chief executive Anne Looney said the impact will be mostly positive for young people in comparison to those now studying up to a dozen subjects for the Junior Certificate. “Students will have had a much wider range of learning experiences in school, more use of technology, lots of different kinds of assessment and not just written exams, even though they will have covered fewer subjects for assessment purposes,” said Ms Looney. “They are going to have to work a bit harder because the active learning, group learning, and project work mean there is nowhere to hide down the back of the classroom.” There is still reluctance among teachers about assessing their own students and the absence of a nationally certified exam after the first three years.
Ms Looney said there is also understandable anxiety among principals and teachers, but she said it should be remembered they will be judging students’ work rather than students. In order to encourage consistency across schools, samples of students’ work will be placed online to guide teachers, students and parents on expected standards. She addressed more than 500 school leaders at an event run by Joint Managerial Body, which represents 370 secondary schools, where the impacts on day-to-day teaching and learning, timetabling and developing short courses were discussed, along with the national literacy and numeracy strategy, and school self-evaluation. English is the first subject for which junior cycle changes are being introduced, with a final curriculum due out next month to be taught to children starting second-level education in a year’s time. It will set out the kind of school work that teachers should set and mark students on for the 40% of final marks going for assessment of oral, reading, and writing skills. JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly said all schools welcome the student-centred focus of the revised junior cycle. However, he said, a day of training for teachers of all subjects on new approaches to assessment should be given in every school this year, rather than just to teachers of each subject as new curricula are introduced over the next four or five years.
“Every school should also be allowed appoint a teacher to work for 10 hours a week preparing materials to help staff introduce these reforms properly,” he said. Department of Education chief inspector Harold Hislop agreed that there is a subject-centred approach to professional development for teachers, but said it will be more balanced towards whole-school changes as training programmes are widened for more subjects. The new curricula in Irish, business studies, and science will be taught to students beginning in Sept 2015.
www.irishexaminer.com
Thriomaigh an fhoinse
September 16, 2013
Foras na Gaeilge ended its contract with Foinse four years ago. It seems that Foras were unhappy with circulation figures. I really liked Foinse: the paper had first rate writers and sometimes it carried stories that you couldn’t find in any other newspaper. In my opinion,the paper that came after it, Gaelscéal, was not half as good as Foinse. Only around 1,400 copies of Gaelscéal were sold in the shops, apparently. But Foinse came back as a supplement in the Irish Independent. The new Foinse was a very good paper. That’s right: past tense. There was a notice on the Internet site Foinse.ie last week saying that the printed edition of Foinse would no longer be available. The Foinse Internet service is still available. This is an excellent facility: the site gives you six or seven pieces of news in very good Irish and there is help for those who do not have much Irish. Emer Ní Chéidigh and her staff did a great job. The paper had a very professional look. Readership increased 350% ! Young people started reading Irish for the first time.
The printed edition was an excellent resource- particularly for learners. But now we don’t have an Irish language paper. An Irish teacher will not be able to show his class a newspaper to illustrate a point. Is there another country in the world that does not have a newspaper in the first national language? Are we not hypocrites? Is Ireland not a laughing stock? We are looking for official status for Irish and we cannot even produce a weekly paper. A small staff- perhaps six people- could put out a good paper every week. We have the writers. But they have no work. Will we have another generation of Irish writers? Are we happy to be reading the English rags? (‘No fun, no Sun’). Have we lost our dignity completely? Will Irish go the same way as Latin: a living language – a school subject – a part of classical studies – disappeared out of sight?
www.derryjournal.com
