It is acknowledged that there are specific language difficulties at the school to which the Deputy refers. These difficulties stem, in part at least, from the fact that a large number of pupils attending the school were born in non-English speaking countries. The managerial authorities of the school sought, among other concessions, the provision of a language teacher and a remedial teacher for the school.
On the question of the allocation of a language teacher, my Department's inspectorate have advised that a teacher with one or more foreign languages would not be of significant additional assistance to the school in view of the many different languages spoken by pupils at the school.
I am currently considering the possibility of making additional remedial and resource teacher posts available to primary schools for the forthcoming school year. I can assure the Deputy that the needs of this school will be taken into account as part of this process.
An offer of providing an in-service course on the methodology of teaching English as a second language to teachers working at the school was made to the managerial authorities some time ago. However, this offer has not been availed of to date. It is considered that the provision of such a course would be of considerable benefit to the teaching staff and would certainly contribute to resolving some of the difficulties which exist at the school.
