Irish to remain as Leaving Cert core-subject- for now
April 5, 2011
Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD has confirmed that there will be no change to the official status of Irish as a compulsory examination subject.
This follows an undertaking made in the Programme for Government which promised improvement in teaching methodologies at second level and that no review of the status of the language in the education system would take place until such steps had been made.
Speaking in Dáil on 24th March, he affirmed that a review would take place but he didn’t indicate a timeframe for this review.
“We must face up to the fact that many children who commence school with a positive attitude toward Irish do not, for reasons I do not fully understand, retain that attitude. We must examine why that is the case,“ he said during questions on the future of Gaelscoileanna.
“We must consider, for example, the amount of time teachers spend teaching Irish relative to and in the context of the outcomes achieved and the ability of young people to speak the language in an enthusiastic fashion. We must approach this issue honestly”, he added.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 05 Aibreán 2011
