Emergency Meeting to discuss future of COGG
January 15, 2013
An emergency meeting of Irish language and education organisations will take place in Dublin tomorrow to discuss the proposed merger of An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG) with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, Seán Ó Foghlú announced the amalgamation at an Irish-medium education conference on November 23rd 2012.
Since its foundation in 2002, COGG has provided textbooks, posters, Irish language programming and electronic learning materials to Irish-medium schools across the country. It has also funded research in the area of language teaching and immersion education and acts as an advisory body on issues concerning Irish-medium education.
A meeting of Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, Eagraíocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta and Gaelscoileanna, organisations which campaigned for the establishment of the Council, as well An Foras Pátrúnachta and Na Naíonraí Gaelacha will be held to discuss a campaign to support COGG.
The organisations have expressed worry that the role of COGG as an independent agency will be diminished by the merger as well as concerns that the final word on future funding would be made by the NCCA.
The future of COGG has been uncertain since 2009 where Colm McCarthy’s An Bord Snip Nua report recommended that the council be closed. Following the McCarthy report, the Department of Education and Science defended COGG and recommended that it should continue to function as an independent body.
There was some concern that the Bord Snip report failed to take into account the wider functions of COGG in promoting Irish-medium education.
However in the past year the Department has changed its policy and hinted indirectly to representatives of COGG that a merger with the NCCA was on the cards.
No official representations were made to the board or staff of COGG in the interim and it is reported that the organisation was informed of the changes on the day prior to the conference of Gaelscoileanna and Eagraíocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta in November.
The Department has stated that the merger would ensure that COGG would concentrate its resources on its core functions of providing teaching resources to support the teaching of Irish in tandem with the NCCA’s work on revising the curriculum.
According to Ó Foghlú, “The general administrative functions, which are a considerable burden on a small staff, will now be provided by the NCCA”
Three staff are currently employed by COGG and it is now believed that they would operate as an Irish language unit within the NCCA.
The Department’s planned savings may be scuppered however by the fact that both agencies operate on a daily basis using different languages with COGG conducting all of its business, accounts and administration through the medium of Irish language.
The Department insists that the merger makes sense and will benefit Irish-medium education in the long term. Speaking at the Gaelscoileanna conference Seán Ó Foghlú stated that COGG would preserve its identity under the auspices of the NCCA. “The move will strengthen its ability to support Irish-medium education and the teaching of Irish generally”, he added.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
