Small is beautiful as country areas fight to retain schools
April 11, 2011
First the post offices closed, then the pubs. Are the last outposts of rural life doomed?
The new Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, is likely to face one of his toughest political battles as his department moves to shut down tiny rural schools. Local communities will fight a rearguard action to retain small village schools, which are under threat of closure from recommendations in Colm McCarthy’s An Bord Snip report. The McCarthy report said there was scope to cut the number of primary schools. The report stated that there were 659 primaries with fewer than 50 pupils. If these were merged with other schools, Colm McCarthy estimated that this would save 300 teachers, or about EUR18m in annual salary costs. Further mergers of the 851 schools in the 50-100 pupil category would cut the number of teachers by 200, and save another EUR9m annually, according the McCarthy report.
Alarm bells have started ringing across rural Ireland over the past month as the department starts a ‘Value for Money Review of Small Primary Schools’. Figures provided by the Department of Education appear to show that many small schools are unsustainable. The 2010 figures showed that there were 15 schools with fewer than 10 pupils. Mantua National School near Elphin in Co Roscommon is believed to be one of the smallest in the country, with just six pupils. The Roscommon Herald reported last week that it was one of 41 primaries in the county with fewer than 50 children. Shutting down or merging small schools may look like a simple matter, but it is a political and administrative minefield. The savings may be much more limited than those envisaged in the McCarthy report, while the social costs are likely to be huge. Pat Goff, president of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), said: “There is no educational reason for shutting down small rural schools. All the evidence suggests that children do just as well or perform better in them. “When you shut down a school you are killing part of the rural community. Many communities have been left without a post office and a garda station. All that is left is the school.”
While it is inevitable that tiny schools will disappear, Pat Goff says there will be a lot of practical difficulties with large-scale closures. “In the short-term, there are likely to be extra costs involved, including new accommodation and transport.” If two primaries merge, the department may have to pay for extra classrooms. There is also the practical problem of staffing arrangements for the merged schools. Under the current system, when two schools amalgamate, both principals are retained; one is head of the school and the other is a “privileged assistant”. The INTO supports amalgamation of schools where this is the clear wish of the school community. But the INTO’s general secretary Sheila Nunan said financial issues should not be the only concern. She said: “Other considerations must be taken into account such as the adverse effect for the child who is being bussed to a different environment, the importance of the rural school to the community, and its role in the preservation of local history, culture, and folklore.” There are other complex issues that the Department of Education will have to deal with when considering the closure of small schools. Some small schools are under the patronage of the Church of Ireland, and there may not be a similar one within easy reach.
The INTO opposes amalgamation where the language of instruction in one school is English, and the other Irish. There is widespread acceptance that Irish in Gaeltacht areas was weakened in the 1960s and 1970s when different types of school were merged. Pat Goff of the IPPN said any programme of closures should be considered in conjunction with moves to take schools out of Catholic control. Many small schools have only recently been refurbished and provided with new buildings. Does it make sense to close these upgraded facilities? Helen Carroll, the Ear to the Ground presenter, sends her nine-year-old daughter Katie to a small 51-pupil national school in Johnswell near her home Co Kilkenny. “It is absolutely vital for the health of the local community that schools such as this are retained. It provides a very good education. “My daughter gets the sort of personal attention that you mightn’t get in a bigger school,” she says. Helen Carroll believes that there is an onus on parents to support their local schools. “People do not realise how important the local school or post office is to a rural community until it is gone, and then it is too late.” Ruairi Quinn will be keen to make savings, but he may tread warily when shutting down schools. As one seasoned observer of the education scene noted, “There is maximum political pain involved in this, and very little financial gain.”
Irish Independent
Students of irish relying on memorising answers
March 30, 2011
TOO many Junior Cert candidates sitting last year’s Irish higher level paper relied heavily on answers they had learned “off by heart”.
The problem was identified in a report by the Chief Examiner for the State Examinations Commission. The report is one of a series done every year on different subjects reviewing the performance of candidates in the State exams. The examiner highlighted a widespread concern about second-level students depending on rote learning. “It is evident that an excessive number of students are using pre-prepared answers in the composition, prose, poetry and the letter,” the report states. And it advises that candidates would perform better if more emphasis was put on imagination, and a positive, creative and original approach. Government education advisors, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), are drawing up plans for a major revamp of the Junior Cert, partly triggered by the concerns about rote learning.
Irish Independent – Katherine Donnelly
Direct method is the best way to teach Irish
March 24, 2011
THE mind boggles in relation to Felicity Scott’s letter (‘Teach Irish as a foreign language — because it is one,’ March 22).
It is indeed similar to a foreign language for a lot of people, but Ms Scott seems to be somewhat confused between how to teach a native language and how to teach a foreign one. The direct method has time and again been proven as the best method for teaching a foreign language. One could argue there is too much English used in Irish language classes and more of the direct method should be used. Isn’t it through this complete immersion that we see concrete results such as in the Gaelscoileanna and Summer Colleges?
Ms Scott then turns around and contradicts herself, vaunting the success of the Buntus cainte of old, which was a communicative method of immersion using no English. Don’t you think a little continuity should be introduced to the Irish language question if we are to make any progress?
CIARAN O CEALLAIGH,
AUDERGHEM, BRUXELLES
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
A new plan for education
March 21, 2011
Madam, – It was most refreshing and encouraging to read Seán Flynn’s advice to the new Minister for Education (Education Today, March 15th) regarding “breathing new life into the Irish language”.
It is a rare experience to read the direct clarity of the message “overturning 90 years of failed Irish language policy”. Those of us who speak and love the Irish language and value it as a gateway to the land of our forefathers, are aware of the malign effect of this policy on generations of young people. We have had nearly a century of State compulsion, even, for a time, to the extent of “no Irish, no job” in the public service. We have had bribery in the form of grants to Irish-speaking homes, and jobs as translators for Irish language university students, in the pretence that it is necessary to use tons of paper for translations of legislation, to be read by a person or persons unknown. However, “an rud is annamh is iontach”, so full marks to Mr Flynn. The question is, will Ruairí Quinn, or any other Minister, stand up to the Irish language lobby and its phalanx of support organisations? The Taoiseach seems already to have backed down on compulsory Irish in the Leaving Cert. – Yours, etc,
PD GOGGIN,
Glenageary Woods,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
All-Irish schools fight for teachers
March 16, 2011
MORE than 40 all-Irish primary schools will lose teachers next September following a change in the current favourable pupil-teacher ratio in Gaelscoileanna.
They will have the same ratio as the English-medium schools, a change that will particularly hit Gaelic schools with between three and eight teachers. A campaign to retain the present ratio was launched yesterday by Gaelscoileanna Teo, whose president, Micheal O Broin, said the present system recognised the considerable extra workload involved in running an Irish-medium school, such as implementing the entire curriculum through the medium of Irish.
Up to 31 schools will lose one teacher, four schools will lose two teachers and administrative principals will have to return to the classroom in the case of six schools. As a consequence, the number of pupils in classes will increase and there will many mixed classes with a high number of children in them, he said.
Irish Independent
Language chief suggests splitting Irish into two
March 16, 2011
Irish is indeed alive, Mr Myers
March 3, 2011
Kevin Myers (Irish Independent, February 23) thinks the leaders’ debate on TG4 being pre-recorded and subtitled is a joke but he forgets to mention TG4 had their highest ratings ever for it and he fails to realise that any programmes aired in Irish are subtitled for the convenience of non-Irish speakers.
He thinks it’s a myth that Irish is a living language but he fails to recognise the fact that there are about 172 Gaelscoileanna around the country, with around 40,000 children receiving education through the medium of Irish outside of the Gaeltacht areas. There is no doubt a majority would vote to maintain Irish as a compulsory subject because a majority cherish the language, spoken here for over 2,000 years.
Graham Doyle
Artane, Dublin 5
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Majority oppose FG plan to make Irish optional
February 25, 2011
FINE Gael’s plan to make Irish optional in the Leaving Certificate has split voters as well as the political parties.
A slight majority (53pc) of voters wants the language to remain compulsory, an Irish Independent/Millward Brown Lansdowne poll reveals. But 44pc say it should not be obligatory. The remainder said they didn’t know. Some Fine Gael councillors in the Connemara Gaeltacht say the party’s policy will cost it crucial votes. At present, most Leaving Cert students are obliged to study the language. However they are not compelled to sit the subject in the exam, nor to pass it, as was the case in the past.
About one in five students do not take the exam for Irish. They fall into two main categories: those who have studied the subject but don’t bother to take the exam and those who are exempted, either because they lived outside the country for a number of years or because they have a learning disability. Fine Gael is alone among the major parties in suggesting that Irish should be obligatory up to the Junior Cert but optional after that. It has promised consultation with interested parties, but says the policy will still be implemented.
“Compulsion has not worked, as is reflected by the fact that only 4.4pc of people speak Irish on a daily basis outside of education,” said the party’s education spokesperson Fergus O’Dowd. However, he also promised curricular reforms and a doubling of the proportion of Irish students sitting the higher-level paper in Irish in the Leaving Cert by 2018. Compulsory Its likely coalition partner Labour, along with Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein, wants to retain Irish as a compulsory subject.
The Greens favour a compulsory programme in the language, culture and spoken Irish but an optional literature course for Leaving Cert students. At least 31 Independent candidates have pledged their support for retention of Irish as one of the core subjects at Leaving Certificate level. Irish-language groups are also campaigning for the retention of the status quo.
Irish Independent – John Walshe
Go raibh maith agat, Mr Myers
February 25, 2011
Kevin Myers (‘Let’s debunk the myth of Irish as a living language’, Irish Independent, February 23) must really stop encouraging us speakers of Irish.
He has been the most successful promoter of Irish since the foundation of the State. Every time he writes an article on this subject he promotes the use of ‘Gaeilge’ in the farthest corners of the country and, thanks to the internet, on a global scale.
The newspaper for which he now contributes publishes the most widely read Irish language newspaper of all time, ‘Foinse’. The leaders of the main parties are speaking about the issues of the day on television in a pre-election debate. We have Mr Myers and other begrudgers of the Irish language to thank for the vibrancy of the language today. Long may it continue.
Concubhar o Liathain
Co Cork
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Colm O’Rourke: Irish language message getting lost in translation
February 24, 2011
WHAT began as an attempt to refresh my memory as to who is playing this weekend in the Allianz League ended up with musings on Fine Gael’s proposals on the Irish language.
I was rumbling around the GAA diary, which contains all the fixtures, and I began to scan the names of the members of the GAA’s most important committee, An Coiste Bainistí, or Management Committee. I could not help thinking that these names might as well have been written in Chinese as in Irish as far as most people are concerned. I had to work hard myself to figure out who everybody was but I could imagine some people ringing them up if they wanted something (numbers are included) and the first question might be, who are you anyway? The name in Irish means absolutely nothing to many.
Fine Gael, it seems, say that Irish should not be compulsory at Leaving Cert level. The diary shows that there is a wrong attitude towards the language which the GAA continues to be a party to. Lists of players and secretaries in Irish and a few bellicose words from a captain don’t promote anything; all they are is an insult to the language which should be promoted through listening and speaking and not in this totally artificial way. In school, I see many weaker students struggle with Irish at Leaving Cert level and they would be better off doing Home Economics, IT skills or something which they would not become totally frustrated with.
The methods of teaching and examining have improved, with a sizeable proportion of marks for oral and aural tests, but the war was lost through stupidity in trying to ram poetry and literature down young people’s throats. Now is the time to build from the ground up with a more sensible, user-friendly approach. And even though I think our language and games are worth protecting, the sky won’t fall in if those who find it absolutely impossible drop Irish after the Junior Cert. It would make teaching much easier and develop a proper respect and love for something which is important in creating national identity.
From a GAA point of view, all lists should be in English or Irish which means no forced translations of both Christian and surnames, especially those which have no Irish in them whatsoever. The league is up and running and while losing a first-round game is never a major worry, nobody will want to be pointless this evening. Division 1 is a fairly cut-throat affair but it is the place to be as teams are measured by the best in every game. That is where the All-Ireland winners come from most years and, apart from Tyrone, all the leading contenders are in the top bracket. Perhaps a case can be made for both Kildare and Meath in Division 2 but it would certainly be an advantage for both to have gained promotion over the last couple of years.
Most of the first-round games in the top flight were very competitive, the exception being the mauling that Monaghan gave Galway. It was a long way back from Clones to Eyre Square and there are early signs of disquiet emerging out west. Last week the cry of the sea was being heard, man overboard or even men overboard. It is not easy for Tomás ó Flatharta. I am not a fan of players jumping ship. The best thing is always to stay and fight. Football is full of hard knocks and hanging in when things may not be going well strengthens both mind and body. This is a test of what Galway are made of. Most expect them to be one of the sides for the trapdoor but nothing is inevitable.
The Cork-Kerry match was full of great endeavour and laced with wonderful skill. And there was a share of dodgy refereeing decisions too which had Conor Counihan lamenting in his quiet way the lack of consistency. The same sentiments are expressed every year that young men chase after a round ball. Cork have the wind at their backs now and if they can dig up a few more players, they could have a period of domination as the bulk of the team are at the right age. But Cork have had plenty of great players and great teams before and usually end up with less to show for it than the talents suggest. The next internal convulsion can hardly be too far away, after all, it has been several years of relative quiet by the banks.
Kerry can afford to lose about one more match before some of their supporters fear that they are facing into the blackest night; that usually ends up with them winning only three of the next five All-Irelands. So I would not worry about them yet, even if replacing some of their golden crew will take time. Judging by the performance of Eoin Brosnan with Dr Crokes, he still has a lot to contribute. In most counties, he would be an automatic choice. The other side who need to make hay in this division is Dublin. They now have a big panel of players, many of the hard-running, honest type and just need a quality midfielder, a half-back and one more scoring forward. Sounds easy but that search is going on in most counties. Many are chosen but few make it.
One of the features of the inter-county scene is the general blandness of teams. There are no real characters. Interviews appear all the same: “we knew coming up here today that we were going to have a hard battle”, or, “we have a lot of respect for this team” and so on. With Conor Mortimer in the recovery ward there will be no quotes from that quarter. Maybe James Horan would prefer it like that. Enda Kenny is going to get one part of the Mayo double up, now the easy part will be to win the All-Ireland.
Irish Independent – Colm O’Rourke
