asked the Minister for Education whether he is aware of the fact that there are in Saorstát Eireann two hundred Múinteoirí Gaedhilge, of whom the great majority are anxious to attend courses of instruction designed to fit them to teach other subjects through the medium of Irish, and will the Minister state (a) what steps he proposes to take to enable these teachers to acquire fuller qualifications for posts under the new scheme of Vocational Education; and (b) to what extent non-attendance at the course now provided in Cork for forty of their number will prejudice the chances of continued employment for those not fortunate enough to be called to the said course.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Training of Irish Teachers.
A course is at present being held, with a view to provide for whole-time Irish teachers training in the teaching of subjects other than Irish in a continuation school programme. To this course 40 whole-time teachers have been summoned. The course is to some extent experimental. The organisation of further similar courses will depend on the results shown, and on the fitness of the remaining teachers to profit to the required extent from such additional training. I may also mention that courses of the kind suggested must be held during the holiday season and are difficult to organise; they call for the services of persons of very special qualities and exceptional qualifications as instructors and these are not always available at holiday times.
The purpose of the course being, as already stated, to provide training in other subjects of a continuation school programme, I see no reason why this effort to extend the qualifications of a certain number of Irish teachers should imperil the position of the remainder.
May I ask the Minister if it is the intention to have further courses of a similar nature?
I have indicated that, apart from the difficulty of organising the courses, that depends principally on two considerations: (1) the success with which the present experiment meets and (2) how far the individual whole-time teachers who have not been called are capable of receiving instruction to fit them for teaching another subject. A number of them may be quite good as teachers of Irish, but may be too old to learn another subject.
I referred to "whole-time teachers," which is more or less a technical term. There are teachers whose whole-time occupation is the teaching of Irish, but who are not reckoned as whole-time teachers.
The facts are as stated by the Deputy in some respects. That is why I did not give my assent to the number 200, one way or another. If you took whole-time teachers, there would be somewhere about 106. If you took teachers of Irish of all kinds there would be over 300. That is why I did not refer to the 200 that the Deputy mentioned in his question.