I want to express my gratitude to the staff in the Ceann Comhairle's office for their assistance in getting this matter on to the Adjournment. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to respond on behalf of the Department.
An unfair disadvantage is currently being perpetrated on pupils in Gaeltacht national schools which is hindering their educational progress, and it is in the gift of the Minister and the Department to resolve this matter. I welcome the Minister's commitment to reduce pupil-teacher ratio levels overall, although I acknowledge that during his tenure to date he has been a breath of fresh air in the Department of Education and Science. I hope he will see the logic of what I am trying to achieve in this Adjournment debate.
The most advantageous primary school, from the point of view of the pupil-teacher ratio, any pupil can attend is a gaelscoil. Given the primary position the Irish language holds under the Constitution, it is laudable and understandable that the State should manifest that by having a low pupil-teacher ratio in these schools. However, it should not be a case of gaelscoileanna versus the other schools. There are three categories of primary schools and the schools for which I want to make a case tonight are Gaeltacht primary schools. These schools are at a particular disadvantage and I will briefly outline the reason.
In any individual class in a Gaeltacht national school there are three types of students in terms of their familiarity with the Irish language. That poses serious difficulties both for the pupils and the teachers. Obviously in the Gaeltacht region there are pupils who use the Irish language as their mother tongue and whose parents are anxious that they be educated almost exclusively through the medium of Irish. Then there are what might be described as the majority of pupils, even in Gaeltacht areas, who are doing their best to appreciate the Irish language and whose teachers are attempting to inculcate an appreciation of the language and its traditions but for whom it is not their primary tongue.
Increasingly also in Gaeltacht areas there is a significant and growing non-national population which does not have any familiarity with the Irish language, and that poses a serious difficulty for any teacher. It must be remembered that there may be three of four different classes in many of these classrooms, and to convey any message in any subject in the primary school curriculum to pupils who are at various levels in terms of their comprehension of the Irish language makes it difficult for both the pupil and the teacher.
I would like the Minister to acknowledge this difficulty. I have raised this matter with the Minister by way of Dáil question, unfortunately without success. I ask him to move some way towards recognising the problem in a tangible way by reducing the pupil-teacher ratio in these schools. I note the commitment to reducing the ratio overall but this could be an interim step in achieving the ultimate objective of having the same pupil-teacher ratio that exists in gaelscoileanna in all schools. There is no doubt about the case in terms of the disadvantage pupils and teachers labour under in these classrooms in trying to get their message across.
I ask the Department to move in the direction of reducing the pupil-teacher ratio overall but to use the Gaeltacht primary schools as an intermediary step and to do that as soon as possible to end this educational disadvantage.
