Léachtóir Cúnta i Roinn na Gaeilge
August 1, 2013
New DIT postgraduate courses provide education in key skill areas
August 1, 2013
In response to ever-changing market demands, Dublin Institute of Technology has developed new postgraduate programmes in key skill areas – from digital marketing to sustainable infrastructure, from geospatial engineering to event management.
Postgraduate education is increasingly valued in the workplace and is a way to build on the expertise of a primary degree or undertake study in a different area that adds breadth of knowledge and skills to a CV.
DIT offers career-focused postgraduate education, along with a culture of excellence in teaching and research. A dynamic and interactive postgraduate community at the Institute helps to foster a sense of communal learning, whether a student is on a taught Masters or a research focused Masters.
New postgrad programmes for DIT this autumn include the MSc in Event Management (the only Masters in Event Management in the Republic) and the innovative MSc in Digital Marketing & Analytics (a 16-month programme led by practitioners from the digital marketing world).
On the engineering side, DIT is launching its MSc in Geospatial Engineering (within the new School of Surveying and Construction Management at DIT Bolton Street). The programme aims to prepare graduates to use specialised skills and deep knowledge as producers, managers and users of geospatial information.
Sustainability has become a key area in construction and engineering and the new ME in Sustainable Infrastructure is designed to provide participants with specialised skills and knowledge in technical design in this important sector.
The full list of new postgrad programmes is below. Many of DIT’s postgraduate programmes are available on both a full-time and part-time basis.
- MSc in Event Mgt (DT9143 full-time / DT9414 part-time )
- MSc in Geospatial Engineering (DT9415 full-time / DT9416 part-time)
- MSc in Digital Marketing & Analytics – (DT9333 part-time)
- Masters Qualifier For MSc in Computing – (DT265B full-time, DT265C part-time)
- MSc in Geographic Information Science – (DT9419 full-time/ DT9420 part-time)
- ME in Sustainable Infrastructure – (DT9147 – full-time, DT9148 part-time)
- Higher Diploma in Computing – (DT265 full-time / DT265A part-time)
For more information and to find out how to apply, visit www.dit.ie/postgrad/
For further information on any of the programmes, contact the DIT Press Office on 01-4027130 or email lisa.jewell@dit.ie.
Teideal Nua Réamhscoile ó Futa Fata
August 1, 2013
Déan Coinne le Doire : Turais threoraithe as Gaeilge
August 1, 2013
Feighlí le Gaeilge
August 1, 2013
O’Dowd’s Irish schools agenda causes concern
August 1, 2013
IT was with alarm that I read a recent article in your paper entitled, ‘Benefit of Irish-medium education is there for all’, by Dr Micheal O Duibh.
In it, Dr O Duibh claims that “Irish-medium education offers a system which improves children’s skills in English and Irish, making them more tolerant.” I challenge the implication that children who do not learn Irish are somehow less tolerant.
However, more worryingly, his article demonstrates one of the threats to our education system: minister O’Dowd’s preference for Irish-medium schools. These schools receive more funding than other schools by virtue of teaching through Irish.
Elsewhere in our education system, Minister O’Dowd uses the argument that a school is too small to be viable. Not so with Irish-medium schools.
O’Dowd’s long-term plans for education across Northern Ireland must be exposed. This is to prevent the Northern Irish people sleep-walking into the Sinn Fein utopia of Irish-medium, all-ability comprehensives.
Nicole Lappin
Waringstown, Co Down
SF’s language ideology is lost in translation
SURELY the Irish language should be treated as any other language (Comment, July 25)?
If a school wants to introduce it as subject – as French, or German – then so be it. But I fail to see the logic in having an all-Irish-medium school. What does the future hold for the language outside of the school?
Last week, I stayed in a town south of Dublin and travelled around. Apart from bilingual signage for directions and on public buildings, I did not see any sign of the Irish language being used. Many non-Irish people live and work in Dublin – their main working language being English. There was also a proliferation of English language colleges to enable other nationalities wanting to speak English. Some of the local people I spoke to had not looked at Irish since they left school.
In Northern Ireland, successive Sinn Fein education ministers have used their position to push ahead with this ideology.
In the year 2010/11, the minister, John O’Dowd, spent £110,000 on Irish translation services – up from £68,000 the year before. Also, CCEA spent £598,828, compared with £98,000 in 2006/07. If this principle of translation were applied to other languages of foreign nationals living in Northern Ireland, the cost would be insurmountable.
Maybe Sinn Fein need to take their heads out of the sand as the cost of translation alone is more than enough.
Hugh Morrow
By e-mail
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Scoláireachtaí €2,000 ar fáil
August 1, 2013
‘Easpa uaillmhéine’ an Rialtais
July 31, 2013
Watch your language in shared education debate
July 31, 2013
Irish-medium schools have their place but not in the vanguard of a truly integrated education system, writes Danny Kinahan
Dr Micheal O Duibh is chief executive of the representative body for Irish-medium education in Northern Ireland. On this page last week, he sought to position his sector as key to the advancement of shared education here. Dr O Duibh is mistaken.
While recent education ministers have looked favourably on the Irish-medium sector and while minority languages were upheld in the Belfast Agreement, the Ulster Unionist Party doesn’t believe that any particular sector should be given undue advantage over another.
Unfortunately, that is what the current, flawed ESA (Education) Bill is shamelessly trying to do – and that is why my party will be challenging it.
The Ulster Unionist Party believes that pupils and parents should be free to choose schools and subjects and, when it comes to languages, have a range of options which will serve them well for life and work in the global marketplace. French, German, Chinese, Spanish and, indeed, Irish are all useful.
If you look at the Department of Education’s figures regarding the strength of Irish-medium education, you will see there are 28 primary schools and one post-primary, along with some 13 Irish-medium units of differing types.
Between them, all they have are only 4,600 pupils; that’s 1.3% of the entire Northern Ireland school population of more than 313,000 young people.
In spite of their small market-share, we recognise Irish-medium as a valid choice for some parents; however, the real questions are whether they deliver a quality education and whether there is enough demand to make the sector sustainable.
On the issue of quality education, figures show that, in 2012/13, 43.5% of pupils who attended the only Irish-medium post-primary school, Colaiste Feirste, achieved five GCSEs, including English and maths at grades A* to C. This is significantly below the overall Northern Ireland average of 60.1% for post-primaries.
While I fully acknowledge that there are a range of attainment levels across every sector, unfortunately for Dr O Duibh, the limited evidence available does not demonstrate that Irish-medium schools offer an outstanding education.
On the issue of demand, while the Ulster Unionist Party does not universally accept the arbitrary Bain benchmark of 105 pupils supposedly needed to make primary schools sustainable, the minister himself seems wedded to it.
Of the 28 Irish-medium primary schools, 17 fall short of minimum enrolment numbers. How, then, can he possibly justify opening new Irish-medium schools, often in large urban areas, when there is insufficient local demand?
The chief executive of Comhairle na Gaelscolaiochta quoted an interesting statistic: he indicated that, because 72% of Irish-medium schools are within the “other maintained sector”, they were somehow more integrated.
The fact is, of the 29 Irish-medium schools, 21 have no Protestant pupils, and the remaining eight all have fewer than five.
Out of 4,600 pupils, there are no more than 40 Protestants pupils. Hardly a statistic that turns the Irish-medium sector into the flag-carrier of shared education.
Shared education must now become a definitive target, rather than a distant aspiration.
Micheal O Duibh is mistaken if he seriously expects the rest of us to buy the notion of Irish-medium education leading the vanguard towards a single, shared system.
Danny Kinahan MLA is UUP education spokesman and vice-chairman of the Assembly’s education committee.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
€4,050 sanctioned for Naíonra Thuar Mhic Éadaigh
July 31, 2013
Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, Dinny McGinley T.D., has announced the sanctioning of a €4,050 grant for Coiste Naíonra Thuar Mhic Éadaigh to resurface the playground and to purchase new equipment.
At the announcement of the grant, the Minister of State said he was pleased to award this grant at this time in order to develop this important facility and stated that “this Naíonra has a vital role in the promotion of the Irish language in the area”.
Published on Gaelport.com
