Irish Language groups criticise new funding model based on tenders

January 19, 2012

A new funding mechanism being introduced by Foras na Gaeilge has been strongly criticised by the 19 Irish language promotion organisations that receive their core funding from the body.

Foras na Gaeilge, a North/South implementation body set up under the Belfast Agreement, has a role in advising the administrations North and South in matters relating to the Irish language.

It also channels state funding to Irish language organisations throughout the island of Ireland.

Following concerns in recent years over increased administration costs at the core-funded organisations, the Foras has been trying to replace the grant-in-aid system with a system of competitive tendering for funding.

Under the new system all the current core-funding would cease and the organisations, all of which are not-for-profit, would have to compete on a three-yearly basis in a quasi-market for funds to implement one of eight schemes planned by the Foras.

The affected organisations say this would result in a commercialisation of a sector which is currently community-based and that they will not be in a position to survive without State funding.

Conradh na Gaeilge general secretary Julian de Spáinn said the new approach would ensure that instead of working together, Irish language organisations would now be set in competition against each other.

Mr de Spáinn believes it could result in the destruction of the Irish language movement.

Under the proposed funding method, all language strategy would be decided by Foras and the role of the organisations would be to achieve objectives and targets set by Foras.

Mr de Spáinn said the organisations were “more than happy” to sit down with the Foras and Government departments to see how they could work together to achieve greater effectiveness.

He warned that the work and services currently offered by grassroots Irish language organisations would come under threat if the new funding system were introduced.

The 19 organisations which are affected by the change, including Conradh na Gaeilge, said in a statement this week that the introduction of the new funding model will have a “detrimental and irreversible effect” on the Irish language.

“Under the new proposals, Foras na Gaeilge would see organisations dismiss all staff whose positions are funded by Foras na Gaeilge”, the statement said.

“Overnight, years of experience and expertise would be lost. A contract worker could never gain as much experience and expertise. On top of this, the Irish language would no longer be seen as a viable career choice”, it warned.

The organisations are seeking to engage with Foras na Gaeilge to come up with a new work model which they say would benefit the language throughout the island and encourage the use of Irish “on an agreed and planned basis.”

SDLP spokesman for the Irish language Dominic Bradley called yesterday on both sides to negotiate. He said he had spoken to both sides and the dispute was an issue “of concern for the cause of Irish on the island of Ireland”.

There was room for compromise, Mr. Bradley said, as considerable savings could be achieved by the organisations in question and that these options should be explored further.

A spokesman for Foras na Gaeilge said the body was happy to sit down with the organisations at any time.

Breandán McCraith said the existing system was not sustainable and that Foras had no choice but to change the funding mechanism following a direction by the North-South Ministerial Council “and that is why we are taking this route”.

The Irish Times

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Positive results for Gaelscoileanna in new ESRI Report

January 19, 2012

The latest report from the ESRI, published yesterday, is available to download here: The Primary Classroom: Insights from the Growing Up in Ireland Study

The report has some very interesting and positive things to say about gaelscoileanna, including:

From the Executive Summary
Ich 9: ..girls, those attending fee-paying schools, those attending gaelscoileanna and those in non-disadvantaged schools are more likely to experience active learning in their classroom than boys, those in English-medium schools and those in disadvantaged (DEIS) schools.

On the time allocated to subject groupings according to school characteristics:
Lch 21: Differences are also evident in terms of the language medium of the school. Not surprisingly, English-medium schools allocate more time to English and less time to Irish than Irish-medium schools, both Gaeltacht schools and gaelscoileanna. However, other differences are evident, with gaelscoileanna devoting more time to Drama, Music and PE than either English-medium or Gaeltacht schools (Figure 2.4). The pattern appears to reflect a broader orientation to the promotion of Irish language and culture in gaelscoileanna rather than language medium per se.

Factors influencing time allocation:
Lch 23 Even controlling for gender mix and DEIS status, students attending gaelscoileanna spend more time on PE, Drama and Music than other students.

Curriculum groupings:
Lch. 28: Gaelscoileanna are more likely than Gaeltacht or English-medium schools to provide a broad curriculum.

Teaching methods and class sizes:
Lch. 36: Children attending gaelscoileanna are more likely to be in classes of greater than 30 pupils, while girls attending single sex schools are less likely to be in large classes.

Ich 39: Children in gaelscoileanna are more likely to benefit from pair- and group-work than children in other school settings, as are children attending fee-paying schools. While in both the fee-paying sector and Irish-medium schools teachers place less emphasis on providing differentiated activities, they place a greater emphasis on hands-on activities, using play to facilitate learning and encouraging pupils to find things out for themselves. In contrast, they appear to rely less frequently on more traditional approaches like copying notes from the board.

Lch. 43: Teaching methods are found to vary by school characteristics. In keeping with the descriptive analyses presented above, teachers in girls’ schools are more likely to use more active approaches than those in boys’ or coeducational schools. In addition, teachers in gaelscoileanna are more likely to use active methods than those in English-medium or Gaeltacht schools.

Lch. 45: More active teaching approaches like pair-work, group-work and hands-on activities are all more prevalent among recently qualified teachers and decline in prominence with length of teaching experience. This is a significant finding and may signify an important shift in teacher training methodologies over time. There is also evidence to suggest that teachers take different approaches in different school and classroom contexts – with more active methods adopted in single-sex girls’ schools, fee-paying schools and gaelscoileanna, and more teacher-centred approaches in rural DEIS and urban band 1 DEIS schools.

Children’s engagement across school settings:
Lch. 49: Children attending gaelscoileanna are also less likely to report that they never like school, although again small numbers point to the need for caution in the interpretation of these results.

Children’s attitudes:
Lch. 57: Not surprisingly, children in Irish-medium schools are more positive about Irish than those in English-medium schools (see Figure 4.9), with the most positive attitudes evident among children attending gaelscoileanna. Interestingly, children attending Irish-medium schools, both gaelscoileanna and Gaeltacht schools, also have more positive attitude to Reading than those in English-medium schools. No variation is evident in attitudes to Mathematics by language medium of the school.

Lch. 59: Not surprisingly, children attending gaelscoileanna have more positive attitudes to Irish than those in English-medium schools. Interestingly, however, no significant differences are found between Gaeltacht and English-medium schools in attitudes to Irish. Finally, attitudes to the three subjects do not vary between DEIS and non-disadvantaged schools.

Lch. 61: As might be expected attitudes towards Irish are more positive among children attending gaelscoileanna, although no significant differences are found between Gaeltacht and English-medium schools in attitudes towards Irish.

Conclusion:
Lch. 62: Thus, children attending gaelscoileanna are more likely to experience a broad curriculum and spend more time not only on Irish but also on Music, Art and PE.

Lch. 62: It is of policy concern too that some groups of children, namely, girls, those attending fee-paying schools, those attending gaelscoileanna and those in non-disadvantaged schools, have greater access to the kinds of active methods which may engage them in learning. Couched differently, boys and children from disadvantaged backgrounds, groups with lower levels of achievement later on in the school system, are less likely to experience active and engaging settings for learning. The reasons for such differences are unclear from the data available here, but may reflect group-work and pair-work being seen as ‘easier’ to manage with more engaged groups of students.

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Ceolchoirm saor in aisce! Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ

January 18, 2012