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SCHOOLS CAN’T MEET ‘THE DEMAND FOR IRISH’

January 21, 2016

BALLINCOLLIG’S schools can’t meet the demand for Irish language education, according to Gaelscoileanna.
The national campaign group will host an information session in the Oriel House Hotel at 8pm this evening to provide parents with information on how a new primary school earmarked for the town could become a gaelscoil.

The town’s Irish education is currently provided by Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáín, but this school is oversubcribed, as are all primary schools in the town.
Last year, the Department of Education and Skills announced a number of education developments to meet the demands of Ballincollig’s growing population, including a new primary school, with work to commence in September 2017.
Gaelscoileanna want parents to get on board demand to have the new school designated as an Irish-medium multi-denominational school.
An Foras Pátrúnachta plan to apply for patronage of the school. This group are the largest patrons of Irish-medium schools in the country.
Gabriel Ó Cathasaigh, principal of Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáín, said he would welcome another Irish langauge school to the town.
“It’s a very exciting idea. I’m delighted with it, if it can happen at all,” he said.
Mr Ó Cathasaigh has been with the school since it first opened in 1983, teaching the junior infants class of just 17 pupils. “It’s grown every year since then,” he said.
Now, the school caters to 700 pupils, and will grow to 800 in the coming years.
The school was upgraded in 2012, but has now had to cut back on the number of junior infants to prevent it become over crowded in the next few years.“We could take in double if we had the room. There is a huge demand for places, a demand that we can’t meet.
“It’s very disappointing to me when people present for a place and can’t get one,” he said.
He said he would support not just a second gaelscoil, but a multi-denominational one too, as An Foras Pátrúnachta hope to provide.
“Any child can get a place in a Ballincollig school regardless of their religion, but it would be nice to have a multi-denominational school too,” he said.
He said that children who learn through Irish are bi-lingual from an early age, and can easily learn other languages later in life too.

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/schools-cant-meet-the-demand-for-irish/1603711/

Ballincollig Seeks 800-Pupil Gaelcholáiste

July 3, 2014

AN APPLICATION has been made for a new 800-pupil Gaelcholáiste to be set up in Ballincollig.

A committee of teachers and parents has prepared and submitted a detailed application to the Department of Education calling for the establishment of the school to meet the need for an all-Irish secondary school in the town.

The principal of the town’s all-Irish primary school, Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin, Gabriel Ó Cathasaigh, has warned that the lack of available gaelcholáiste places for graduating gaelscoil pupils could reach crisis point.

Mr Ó Cathasaigh said that if current trends continued, up to 90 children would have no place in an all-Irish secondary school by 2020.

Almost 200 parents of pupils of Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin attended a public meeting in the school last month to discuss the immediate lack of second-level, all-Irish education places in the town and the difficulties it will cause over the coming years.

The meeting heard that the boards of management of Choláiste Choilm and Gaelcholáiste Choilm adopted a new admissions policy before Easter 2014, meaning that for the first time, pupils graduating from Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin this year were not guaranteed a place in Gaelcholáiste Choilm.

The figures mean that if just 80% of the students attending gaelscoileanna in the area wish to continue their second-level education in Irish this year, there will be a shortfall of 29 second-level places.

A committee set up by Mr Ó Cathasaigh and parents has urged parents to lobby local politicians, including Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, Ministers of State Sean Sherlock and Kathleen Lynch, and TDs Michael Creed, Áine Collins and Michael Moynihan.

Mr Ó Cathasaigh has also written to parents in the area, outlining the proposal.

He said: “The parents of Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin can help the government focus on this issue, in the hope that with some planning now, our politicians can avert a looming gaelcholáiste places crisis.

“We hope this will create the momentum we need to get the campaign on track and to ensure the application will get the support it needs and deserves.”

www.eveningecho.ie

Turais Ghaoluinne anois i monarcha saighdiúirí bréagán

April 9, 2014

Sorry, this entry is only available in Irish.

Three new schools for Cork

November 29, 2013

TWO of Cork’s biggest boom towns will get three new secondary schools by 2016 — with two schools planned for Carrigaline and one for Midleton/Carrigtwohill.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has just confirmed patronage for the schools, which will cater for 1,200 students in Carrigaline and 1,000 students in the Midleton/Carrigtwohill area. Rapid population growth in these towns during the boom period has left the existing school structures creaking at the seams.
Carrigaline is to get a 600-student “Catholic school” modelled along the ethos of the historic Christian Brothers College in thecity, but it will be a non-fee paying and co-educational. The satellite town will also get a new multi-denominational Educate Together school, catering for a further 600 students.
These school developments will be entirely separate to an existing plan in Carrigaline for a 24-classroom Gaelscoil, a 500-pupil Gaelcholáiste and a seven classroom Sonas Special School. In the Midleton area, the Cork Education and Training Board, along with the Bishop of Cloyne, will oversee a new 1,000-student secondary school.
Minister Simon Coveney said the discussion now would be on the selection of sites.
“We hope to see this process fast tracked as quickly as possible. This is a real investment in education but also an investment in choice and diversity in education.”
Minister for State in the Department of Education and Skills, Seán Sherlock, said:
“These are schools that have been requested by the parents of the area, and the Department is responding to the needs and demands of the parents.”
“I look forward to the next step in the process, which includes securing specific sites.”
East Cork TD David Stanton welcomed the new schools for the Midleton area, saying:
“There has been significant population growth in the Midleton/Carrigtohill area in recent years, meaning this new school is badly needed. It will provide a high quality and modern education setting for thousands of teenagers in the years ahead.”

www.eveningecho.ie

Aisling dhornálaíochta Éireann Christina tagtha chun réadúlachta

June 13, 2013

Taifeadadh dlúthdhiosca Mhúscraí mar infheistíocht dúbailte san óige

June 13, 2013

Amhráin óige Mhúscraí taifeadta ar dhlúthdhiosca

May 9, 2013

Maebh mar loinnir dhóchais Mhúscraí i gcomórtas Scór

March 13, 2013

Athrú stíle do dhaltaí meánscoile

March 6, 2013

School Joy for Carrigaline

July 25, 2012

A new 500-pupil secondary school is to be built in Carrigaline.

The Department of Education is set to confirm funding for the new gaelcholáiste under the patronage of the County Cork VEC. The new school has been planned for a number of years and a large site has already been purchased at Ballinrea to the north of the town. The county council subsequently rezoned the land from agricultural to education use.

Labour TD Ciarán Lynch said a specific timeline for the school’s construction has not been given but said he expected work to start before the end of the year and the school to start accepting pupils from September 2014.Approval of funding by the Department of Education reflects the rapid population growth in Carrigaline over the past decade.

Carrigaline Secondary School is the only post primary school in the suburban town and has more almost 1,000 pupils enrolled there.“This is very welcome news that funding has now been approved by the Department of Education. The County Cork VEC have been seeking this for many years,” Deputy Lynch said.“This is a response to the rapid growth in the area and the number of school projects both at primary and post primary levels that will be carried out in Carrigaline in the coming years reflects this increase in population,” he said.

The Carrigaline Gaelcholáiste will join numerous other all-Irish secondary schools in areas such as Glanmire, Ballingeary, Ballymakeera and Cork city. All-Irish units are also attached to secondary schools in Ballincollig, Clonakilty and Youghal.