Do Gaelscoileanna amount to educational apartheid?
Samhain 6, 2012
My husband wants our daughter to go to the local Gaelscoil, but neither of us is great at Irish.
He seems to think it will give her the upper hand in learning languages. I’m not so sure. I do know some parents who have openly said they send their children to Gaelscoileanna so they don’t have to deal with non-nationals. Seems crazy. baby pickle, magicmum.com
I don’t think Gaelscoileanna should necessarily be fee-paying, but I do think that the same level of education should be afforded any child with special needs as is afforded to a child with no special needs. I have encountered many people who are sending their child to a Gaelscoil or Church of Ireland school as they won’t be associating with members of the Travelling community and, in the case of the Gaelscoil, are less likely to have someone with special needs. ackee123, magicmum.com
I’ve definitely come across the reasons outlined in the [‘Irish Times’] article for choosing a Gaelscoil. I’ve also come across people with a love for the language and a desire for their children to enjoy Irish in a way they didn’t at school. There are good Gaelscoileanna in our area. We ruled them out in part because it would be hypocritical for us to send our children, given how little we feel for the language. novbaby31, magicmum.com
In our Gaelscoil we have six special-needs assistants, numerous children with every kind of disability, both learning and physical, several support teachers and numerous families where one or both parents were not born in Ireland. Blood. Boiling! yurm, magicmum.com
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