asked the Minister for Education the reason why candidates for the group certificate in vocational schools are required to pass an examination in oral Irish.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Vocational Schools Certificate.
19.
The students involved follow a course in Irish as part of the normal school curriculum. The purpose of the oral test is to ensure that they will reach an appropriate degree of proficiency in the spoken language.
Would the Minister not consider it to be in the best interest of the Irish language that oral Irish should be voluntary since a substantial number of students do not need to have oral Irish in practice after they leave school?
As I have already explained in replying to my Estimate, my view on this matter is that every Irish child is entitled to know his own language. He is entitled to have this language taught him at school so that he will know the language, and it is his business afterwards whether he wishes to speak it. I would like if every child did continue to speak the language.
It is perfectly all right that he should be entitled to know the language but it is a different matter that he should be compelled to know it.
Is the Minister talking about entitlement or about compulsion? We are all in favour of entitlement.
What I am saying is that every child is entitled to know his own language and the only way in which he can learn it is by being taught it at school.
We are in favour of entitlement as opposed to compulsion.
They are two different matters.
If the Deputy could tell me of any way in which a child could get to know the language without being taught it, I should be glad to hear from him.
I will give the Minister plenty of time on that subject in an effort to encourage love for the language and not compulsion.
This has been going on for 50 years now.
Will the Minister not agree that, since Irish is compulsory in so far as the primary school curriculum is concerned, a child having studied the language at primary school should be in a position to decide for himself when he goes to a vocational school?
The Deputy is aware that Irish is an essential subject for public examinations including the intermediate and leaving certificate examinations, the purpose being, as I have already mentioned, to enable all our children to acquire a competent knowledge of the language. The inference in the Deputy's question evidently is that I should discriminate against tradesmen and working class people. If that is the inference, it is something that I refuse to accept.
That is a grossly unfair inference.
(Interruptions.)
Question No. 20.