Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 February 2024
44. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education the current policy on the provision of language support hours or additional language teacher allocations in Irish medium and Gaeltacht schools for children whose first language is neither Irish nor English. [9439/24]
View answerThe Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile and also encompasses the Language Support allocation that schools were allocated in previous years. Under this SET model, schools are frontloaded with resources to provide support immediately to those pupils who need it without delay. Schools should draw from their SET allocation to support pupils who have been identified as being in need of language support through the school’s assessment processes.
The Department also provides specific language support to schools with pupils newly arrived into the country. Irish-medium primary schools outside of the Gaeltacht have the option of implementing a period of total early immersion up to the end of senior infants. For Gaeltacht schools a period of total early immersion up to the end of senior infants is required. Instruction in total immersion settings is exclusively through the medium of Irish. Instruction by language-support teachers should align with this practice.
