Good sport Kenny is spreading the word about Seachtain na Gaeilge festival
March 7, 2012
TAOISEACH Enda Kenny yesterday spread the word that the Irish language is alive and well at the launch of Seachtain na Gaeilge 2012.
He showed off his hurling skills to Noinin Ni Mhurchu (5), from Scoil Bharra in Cabra, to mark the start of the two-week festival.
Running up to and including St Patrick’s Day, the festival aims to promote our national tongue at home and abroad.
Now in its 110th year, a primary objective of the festival is that those with even just a ‘cupla focal’ have the courage to speak up.
For the first time, many politicians may find themselves lost for words as an Irish language ‘La Gaeilge’ will take place today in the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Order of Business and Leader’s Questions will all be conducted through Irish.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Gaeltacht schools bear brunt of cuts
January 27, 2012
Gaeltacht schools will be worst affected by controversial changes to the pupil/teacher ratio announced in the Budget, it has been claimed.
Savage cuts to teacher numbers announced in December mean the minimum number of pupils required for a fourth teacher goes from 81 to 83.
However, in Irish-speaking areas where the minimum was previously 76 pupils, schools now need 83 pupils to qualify for a fourth teacher.
This increases to 86 by 2014 for all schools, meaning the increase in Gaeltacht areas will be 10 pupils compared to five pupils in other areas.
Last night, the organisation representing Gaeltacht schools warned the changes would accelerate the decline of the Irish language.
Chief Executive of Eagraiocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta, Treasa Ni Mhainin, said at least 12 four-teacher Gaeltacht schools will lose a teacher in September.
The organisation predicts that another 30 of the 143 Gaeltacht schools will lose teachers in the next three years.
Aine Ui Loinsigh is the principal of Scoil Eoin Baiste in Lispole, CO Kerry, one of the four teacher Gaeltacht schools that will lose a teacher in September.
In 1999, Gaeltacht schools received a special concession from the then Education Minister Mary Hanafin that lowered the minimum pupil requirement.
Ms Ui Loinsigh said that just because children live in a Gaeltacht area, it didn’t necessarily mean they were all from Irish-speaking homes.
“When we’re teaching a subject, we have to teach the langauge first. For example, if I’m teaching science to my sixth class, I’ll have to teach them the terms first in Irish and that’s why this concession was made to Gaeltacht schools,” Ms Ui Loingigh explained.
A spokesperson from the Department of Education was not available for comment last night.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Children who are too busy perform poorly at school
January 27, 2012
WELL-INTENTIONED parents can keep their children so busy on organised activities it damages their school performance.
It means the ‘hurried child’ can end up with the lowest scores for reading and maths, according to a report on how recreation can influence educational achievement.
It is the latest research from the ongoing ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ survey of nine-year-olds, by the Economic and Social Research Institute and Trinity College.
But the old adage of education beginning at home is also proved.
The government-funded study places 8,500 children into five distinct groups based on how they spend their time when not in school — and other factors such as social class and where they live.
The children sat tests in reading and maths from the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, Dublin, and some wide variations in performance were thrown up.
The study found higher scores were achieved by kids active in cultural activities, such as music and drama, and living in areas where it is safe to play outside.
Poor scores were found among those who mainly engaged in unstructured activities, such as vegging out in front of the TV, and those who do not use — or have access to — computers and other such technology.
Children using technology in school are more likely to use it outside, but the report highlights a significant divide. Kids with greater access to computers included those in private schools, designated disadvantaged schools, Gaeltacht schools and urban areas.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said yesterday literacy begins at home and parents and grandparents have a role to play.
“The classroom cannot solve everything,” he said.
Mr Quinn said television had become an “electronic baby-minder” and active involvement by parents was required.
The biggest group in the study, 25pc, are very involved in cultural activities, such as club participation and reading. These, along with what are described as the social networkers (18pc), have the highest scores in reading and maths.
Social networkers are distinguished by their frequent use of computers, especially for keeping in touch with friends, while also being involved in cultural activities and sports. Children from more advantaged families are most likely to fall into these categories.
Next on the performance ladder are the 20pc who play sports and computer games more than others, and spend less time on other activities.
Those with the lowest scores in reading and maths are the 23pc who spend most of their spare time watching television or with friends, and those with ‘busy lives’ who are taking on too much.
While there is a link between involvement in organised activities and better results, the study found that too much cancels out some of the educational benefits.
This was identified in the 15pc with ‘busy lives’, the so-called ‘hurried child’.
Gender differences are highlighted with girls more likely to be involved in cultural activities and to use social media. Boys are more involved in playing sports and computer games.
Urban children are more likely to fall into the social networkers and busy lives groups, and children attending gaelscoileanna are strongly engaged in cultural activities and least likely to fit into the TV/sports group.
One of the report’s authors, Prof Emer Smyth of the ESRI said children from more disadvantaged backgrounds may lose out academically if they didn’t have access to the same kinds of organised activities as their more middle-class peers.
Among the measures called for in the report — carried out in 2007/’08 — are subsidies for children’s recreation, and access to safe play areas within neighbourhoods.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
For the sake of our future we must swim upstream
January 23, 2012
A revolution is brewing among parents who oppose the Government’s proposed cutbacks for small rural schools, writes Concubhar O Liathain
‘ONLY dead fish swim downstream.” This was the Finnish proverb quoted by John McKenna, co-author of the Bridgestone Guides to fine dining in Ireland, and an unlikely revolutionary.
A native of Northern Ireland now living in Durrus in west Cork, when he spoke last Monday night at a public meeting in Dunmanway to protest against proposals to impose cuts on small rural schools, his proposal was as revolutionary as his opening proverb was apt.
His most revolutionary message: there is an alternative.
When Finland faced its economic crisis in 1991, instead of cutting funding to education it invested more in schools and pupils. Now Finland spends 7 per cent of its GDP on education and boasts an education system widely acclaimed to be the best in the world. Those who graduate from Finnish secondary schools are likely to be more numerate, literate and multilingual than their counterparts internationally. Finnish educators spend their time travelling the world telling others how they transformed their education system and their country.
McKenna’s message wasn’t lost on the parents and teachers attending this meeting, one of a series held this past week in locations throughout Ireland as the campaign to halt cutbacks which would see many small rural schools lose teachers — and face possible closure –began to gather momentum.
Of 56 schools in west Cork, more than 40 will either lose a teacher or miss out on recruiting a teacher to which they would have been entitled under the current criteria. As one teacher put it, if you think it’s bad this year, just wait until next year. This underlines the fear that these cuts will increase in frequency and intensity.
For these people, the cuts proposed by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn and his coterie of highly paid special advisers are an attack on not alone their schools but on their communities. Until now the age of austerity brought to us by the letters Anglo and Fianna Fail and numbers beyond our comprehension has not touched most of our lives, though it has lightened our pay packets.
But once our children are being asked to pay for the follies of Sean Quinn and his ilk, then parents are roused to anger.
There was a great deal of seething resentment and scarcely repressed rage in evidence last Monday night. The teacher who complained about the difficulties of helping children with special needs of varying ages and demands, and then being told that she may have to cope with an extra class, made a telling point. “There are rules restricting the number of pigs that can be kept in a specific space, there are rules about the number of chickens, but there appear to be no limits to the number of children that can be fitted into a classroom,” she said.
The principal of Scoil Naisiunta Chuil Aodha Barr d’Inse — the school I went to myself and which is now attended by my children — pointed to agriculture as the best performing sector of the economy and wondered aloud about the mixed message being sent to the bedrock of that sector, the farmers, by the proposed cuts.
Other parents spoke about moving to country idylls in west Cork, not for the views but for the prospect of a better education for their children. They believe that rural schools with smaller class sizes and teachers plugged into their communities are the best guarantee of a better education. To say they’re angry about this cherished goal being denied them after all their efforts would be an understatement.
They’re not wrong about the impact of teachers on their children. In a study quoted at the meeting by McKenna, undertaken by Harvard academics Raj Chetty and John M Friedman and Columbia University’s Jonah E Rockoff, involving 2.5 million schoolchildren, they arrived at a number of conclusions. Students who had better teachers — or, in the parlance of the study, high value added teachers — are more likely to progress to third-level education, earn higher salaries, and live in better neighbourhoods and are less likely to have children while they’re teenagers.
The parents who attended Monday’s meeting didn’t need a Harvard study to confirm what they already know: that children in smaller schools are more likely to be taught by a high ‘value added’ teacher. They’re also more likely to stay closer to home or return
home when they themselves are about to raise a family.
While those on the side of small rural schools have Harvard studies and international examples to back their cases, the apologists for the Department of Education proposals have unworkable ideas to save a few cent here and there.
For instance, Fine Gael TD Jim Daly proposed to amalgamate schools by locating the senior classes — three, four, five and six — in one school and the junior classes in the other school building. The junior and senior schools would have one principal. The immediate result of this would be to increase the burden on parents ferrying their children to schools throughout the area. With the price of fuel increasing, the concern isn’t merely financial but safety on roads, which are already being neglected by cash-starved local authorities.
According to John McKenna, the alternative to the appalling vista of ageing people-carriers hurtling around country roads is to make a choice now. He urges us to invest in our children and our future. Let’s invest in them in the hope they will lead this country back to recovery. Schools are not money pits. They’re investment opportunities. They’re not contracts for difference, but contracts which can make a difference.
Whether the Minister for Education and his civil servants are in the mood for a philosophical debate about the future direction of education in Ireland is a moot point. They say they want educational reform, but all they are proposing is cutbacks.
They should sit up and take notice after last Monday night’s meeting. The atmosphere at the rally was alive with the possibility of a real rural revolution. In the coming days and weeks, this rural revolution will be bringing its radical message to the streets of Dublin and the gates of Leinster House.
There is an alternative. We are not dead fish. We’re no longer swimming downstream. For the sake of our children, our country and our future, we need to change direction and swim against the current.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Prioritise maths in primary school, says NCC report
January 12, 2012
THE education system should be overhauled with a much greater emphasis on maths in primary schools while the points systems should be abolished, a top government agency said yesterday.
The National Competitiveness Council’s (NCC) annual report calls for sweeping changes across the education system, as well as further reform of the public sector, more reductions in the cost of doing business and increased productivity in the private sector.
Other changes recommended in education include:
– Higher third-level fees.
– Reform of the Leaving Certificate.
– Further training for teachers throughout their careers.
“Primary school children in Ireland spend the second-highest amount of time in the classroom of all children in the OECD but receive the least amount of tuition in mathematics,” the report states.
At second level, the NCC claims the points system “distorts performance by encouraging students away from vital subjects such as maths and sciences in favour of subjects (perceived) as easier”.
“A new method of entry into third level, which is meritocratic and promotes problem solving and innovation… is required to replace the current system,” the report states.
Teachers should also undergo regular training, with “professional and in-service development” that is “frequent, continuing and progressive during a teacher’s career”.
Meanwhile, at third level, institutions “remain underfunded relative to institutions internationally”.
In response, the report recommends undergraduates “contribute a greater portion of the cost of their education”.
NCC chairman Don Thornhill — a former secretary general of the Department of Education — welcomed the changes currently being implemented but added that more needs to be done, especially with regard to the teaching of Irish.
“The elephant in the room is Irish. Giving a huge amount of time to teaching Irish doesn’t seem to have worked, and we have been doing that since 1922.
“Despite the economic importance of education, there has been a strong bias in the department to the social and cultural roles of education but you won’t have a vibrant social or cultural society if there is no work,” he added.
The report, which was co-authored by government thinktank Forfas, also recommends measures to reduce the cost of doing business in Ireland including the phasing out of subsidies for peat-generated electricity, a faster planning process, an accelerated re-evaluation process for commercial rates and further investment in broadband infrastructure.
This could be the last such report, as the two bodies involved may disappear. Forfas has been earmarked for integration with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, while the future of the NCC will be reviewed later this year.
Last night an education department spokesman defended its record. “The Department of Education gives the teaching and learning of maths high priority (and) has prioritised the rollout of a new maths curriculum — Project Maths — in second-level schools,” he said.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Cupla focal goes hi-tech with ‘app’ for children
November 7, 2011
Toddlers can now use the latest technology to say their first words in both official languages.
TG4 has developed a new Irish language application, or ‘app’, aimed at children as young as pre-school age. It provides more than 100 Irish language words and corresponding images to encourage children to start speaking Irish from the cradle. The ‘app’ also includes the pronunciation of everyday words — like dog, cat, sun and moon. The free ‘app’ is available to download on to iPhones and iPads and will be officially launched by TG4 presenter Maire Treasa Ni Dhubhghaill at today’s Oireachtas na Gaeilge Irish language cultural festival in Killarney, Co Kerry. And it doesn’t stop there. TG4 is also developing interactive web games featuring ‘Mr Men’ and ‘Olivia’ which will be available before Christmas. “As more kids gain access to mobile devices, iPads, tablets, and smart phones, we wanted to ensure that TG4 was accessible to them and for them to interact with the language in a fun way,” said a TG4 spokeswoman.
Success
The concept was developed by the TG4 graphics department following the success of the TG4 children’s weather bulletins, she added. “The cost was minimal. One of TG4’s engineering team did the development work and the TG4 graphics team did the design.” Niall Mac Uidhilin, a lecturer in IT at the Irish language school, Acadamh na hOllscolaiochta Gaeilge, at NUI Galway, said the concept was a brilliant way to get children speaking Irish. “I’m impressed. The voiceovers are obviously native-speaking children and I think it would be an excellent tool for kids and parents in the gaelscoils that may not have Irish themselves,” he told the Irish Independent. “Early immersion in the language is a huge thing and there’s a lot of research that shows the longer they’re immersed in the language in the early years, they become far more skilled in both languages later on.” The association promoting Irish language in schools, Gaelscoileanna Teo, also applauded the ‘app’. “This new resource will encourage children to learn Irish in an enjoyable way, particularly at pre-school level, which research has identified as the most important period in a child’s language acquisition,” a spokesperson said. The ‘app’ is available to download from iTunes by searching for ‘Cula4’ or ‘Irish language’.
Irish Independent – Allison Bray
A bit Irish
October 12, 2011
In response to Mr G G Dalton’s letter on October 3 and Mr Doyle’s letter on September 28, I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Dalton’s assertion that Irish be made optional for the Leaving Cert.
Mr Doyle states that 70pc of Irish parents support compulsory Irish — why weren’t the students asked? (and I mean students from all over the country, not just Gaeltacht areas). Most students in fifth year are over 16 years old. At this age, they are deemed responsible enough to decide on their own medical treatment, yet they are not allowed to decide whether or not to study Irish. I have a son in fifth year and I asked him to go around his class and ask how many of them would do Irish for the Leaving Cert if it was optional. A total of two out of a class of 30 said they would. Incidentally, there are 145 students in his whole year and 25 are doing Irish at higher level (and this figure will go down much lower by the time they sit their Leaving Cert). In case Mr Dalton doesn’t believe my figure, I would suggest that he asks any fifth year student to carry out a similar survey and not have to get Bord na Gaeilge to ‘ask the parents’. By the way, I am not against the abolition of Irish in any shape or form and every resource should be made available to students who WANT to study it. I am sure these students would prefer to be in a class where their classmates have a genuine love of the language and not be in a class where 98pc of the pupils don’t want to be there.
Name and address with editor
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
10 Deireadh Fómhair 2011
17 new schools to open as pupil numbers soar
August 3, 2011
Soaring pupil numbers will see the opening of 14 new second-level schools in 2013 and 2014, on top of three already announced, writes Katherine Donnelly.
Most of the schools will be built in the Dublin commuter belt that includes Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow and Wexford. The Department of Education yesterday announced the location of four new schools to open in 2013: Lusk, Co Dublin; Claregalway, Co Galway; Naas, Co Kildare; and Navan, Co Meath.
In 2014 schools in the Carrigaline/south suburbs area of Cork city; Blanchardstown West, Mulhuddart, Balbriggan and Dundrum, Co Dublin; Maynooth, Co Kildare; Drogheda and Dundalk, Co Louth; Ashbourne, Co Meath; and Greystones, Co Wicklow, will open. These are in addition to schools already announced for Gorey, Co Wexford; Doughiska, Co Galway; and Lucan/Clonburris, Co Dublin.
The schools in Balbriggan, Cork city, and Dundrum have been designated by the department as all-Irish Gaelcholaisti, although their patronage has yet to be decided.
Enrolments are set to rise by over 100,000 across all school sectors by 2017-18.
03 Lúnasa 2011
Is feidir linn, say tiny gaelscoil’s pupils
May 30, 2011
ONE of the country’s smallest primary schools is invoking the message of US President Barack Obama about national identity to make the case for its survival.
Just seven pupils, all girls, attend the 100-year-old Scoil Mhin na Manrach, in the Rosses Gaeltacht in West Donegal.
The decline in enrolment will result in the school, which once boasted numbers in excess of 100, losing one of its two teachers at the end of this school year.
This will edge it ever closer to permanent closure against a backdrop of an ongoing value-for-money review of small primary schools by the Department of Education and Science.
But parents, principal and board of management at the tiny school in the Derryveagh mountains argue passionately that the estimated €30,000 savings from the closures of such schools was nothing compared to the loss it would represent to the Gaeltacht community.
“It is a small school and I can see that people are trying to save money. But Barack Obama when he was here spoke about our identity and looking after our heritage and not forgetting it,” said parish priest and chairman of the board of management Nigel O Gallachoir.
“This school is one of the jewels of the Rosses Parish. It is unique in the sense that it is 100pc ‘as Gaeilge’. The teaching is wonderful. The children are literally getting a one-to-one education.
“They have all the technology they could want and yet it still is immersed in the old tradition.
“It would be awful to lose that link,” he said.
He added that rather than lose such a resource, the department should consider providing transport from other areas where classes are overcrowded. The McCarthy recommendation for the amalgamation of the 600 or so schools with enrolment of 50 pupils or less has prompted the review.
But Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has emphasised that the study is simply about ascertaining the facts and no policy decision has been taken.
Irish Independent – Declan Doherty
Minister on collision course with gaelscoileanna
May 3, 2011
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn faces a showdown with the country’s growing number of gaelscoileanna over controversial proposals for setting up new primary schools.
They claim plans for approving schools in the future will not protect the minority position of all-Irish education.
And they dismiss as unworkable a suggestion that the issue could be dealt with by setting up all-Irish units within English-medium schools.
The proposals are contained in a new report done for the Department of Education by the Commission of School Accommodation.
Objections have been lodged by Gaelscoileanna Teo, a support body for 139 Irish primary schools in the Republic, and An Foras Patrunachta, a patron of 57 Irish language schools.
The commission reviewed the procedures for the setting up of new primary schools in light of the rapid population growth and demand from parents for greater diversity.
It was concerned with the question of physical need for a new school, which is separate, although linked, to patronage — the matter of who runs the schools.
Primary school pupil numbers are predicted to grow by 64,000 by 2018, some of whom will be accommodated in existing schools. However, there will be a need for new schools in areas that have grown rapidly in recent years, such as west Dublin.
Current rules allow for a new primary school to be established once 17 pupils have been identified, but the new plans will require higher minimum numbers and up to three class streams for each year.
Key recommendations include a survey of parents in newly established areas to decide on the type of school and campus-style arrangements, where schools come together on a single site and share facilities.
Letters of objection from Gaelscoileanna Teo and An Foras Patrunachta have been published as appendices to the report.
An Foras Patrunachta chief executive Caoimhin O hEaghra claims the report “places an obstacle to the provision of all-Irish education to the children of the country”.
He said it was likely that those looking for an all-Irish education would be in a minority at first, so a parental survey would not meet their needs.
Gaelscoileanna Teo acting chief executive Nora Ni Loinsigh agreed it would be difficult to establish an all-Irish school on the basis of a survey of parents.
She said the experience of Gaelscoileanna was that all-Irish units in English-medium schools did not work. She said that seven closed at second-level in the past 10 years due to lack of support by the department.
– Katherine Donnelly
Irish Independent
