asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in County Louth the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
23.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Second Level Schools Language Facilities.
13.
asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in County Kildare the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
28.
asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in County Wicklow the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
52.
asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in Counties Sligo and Leitrim the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
69.
asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in County Cork the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
112.
asked the Minister for Education the names of the 100 schools to which extra resources were made available this September for the purposes of teaching continental languages; the way in which these schools were selected; if these additional resources will be permanent or temporary; and the nature and scale of the resources in the case of each school
115.
asked the Minister for Education if she will extend to all second level schools in County Mayo the extra resources being provided for individual second level schools for the teaching of continental languages.
120.
asked the Minister for Education if all second level schools in County Meath will receive aid under the new scheme for providing extra resources for the teaching of continental languages in second level schools.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13, 23, 28, 52, 69, 112, 115 and 120 together.
For the school year 1988-89, 39 schools received payment from my Department in respect of the introduction of an additional modern continental language into the curriculum. Payments made were in respect of the employment of part-time teachers necessary to introduce the subject and varied in each case depending on the scale of the additional provision being made. Appropriate financial aid will be continued to those schools for the current year. The schools in question were those which responded to my initiative in this area by introducing the additional subject in September 1988.
It is my intention to provide financial assistance to a number of additional schools where an additional modern language is being introduced into the curriculum for 1989-90. Applications before my Department are at present being considered. It will not, however, be possible to provide payment for additional part-time hours for the teaching of modern continental languages to every post-primary school in the country.
The decisions in question will be based on such criteria as the extent to which modern continental languages are provided for at present, the extent of such provision in the immediate area and the demand for the additional language within the school.
It was noticeable from the operation of the redeployment scheme at post-primary level that many schools were seeking teachers in German. These teachers would, of course, be employed within quota and would not feature in the present scheme. I am arranging for the list of schools aided in 1988-89 to be sent to the Deputies, and when the information is to hand, for 1989-90 as well.
Will the Minister give a little more information as to how the schools are selected? In view of the fact that her Department's inspectors at post-primary level do not visit schools regularly, how are they capable of deciding on the demand within the school and whether there is a need to give additional resources to one school in a particular town rather than another?
By way of a letter to all the schools and by public statements, I conveyed what I intend to do. The schools wrote in with their requirements and we looked at the quota position and the inspectors' reports, many of which were received. There is a unit in my Department headed by one of the chief inspectors who is monitoring this matter. An interesting factor is that in 1987-88 the number of post-primary schools providing at least two modern continental languages was 269, a very big increase on previous years. As I have said, another 40 were added to that and I would say the figure will be much higher for 1989-90 as will be seen when the returns which the Department have requested from the various schools are to hand.
Would the Minister not agree that the Irish educational system in the last two to three years has been bedevilled by the introduction of selective schemes where the Minister has decided to give resources to one school rather than another, and that this leads to invidious comparisons and all sorts of unworthy suggestions of political favouritism being shown? Even where that may not be the case, the fact that it is possible is unhealthy in terms of educational policy making.
When Paddy Cooney MEP was Minister for Education, the Deputy, as Minister for Finance, turned down a very modest proposal which he put forward for extra language teachers in post-primary schools. What I have done since I came into the Department——
Would the Minister like to answer my question?
——is to massively increase the number of teachers.
The Minister should come back to 1989 for a change.
The Deputy thinks he can come in here and shout me down. Well, he will not.
The Minister is trying to be a historian rather than a Minister for Education.
The number of teachers who are currently offering a second European language has massively increased.
We heard that before.
I would further say that I take great umbrage at the suggestion that these things are done politically.
I am very sorry to have upset the Minister but I am also very sorry that she has not answered my questions.
Because a lot of them are not worth answering.