Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 February 2019
108. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress made on implementing all aspects of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 that are relevant to his Department and bodies under his remit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8618/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraFollowing a consultation process, in June 2018, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht published the 5 year Action Plan for Irish, to provide a more cohesive and coherent framework in support of the 20-Year Strategy’s implementation, focusing on specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific actions to be implemented over the next five years to 2022.
My Department is committed to progressing the aims of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and implementing the actions identified in Area for Action 1: Education as set out in the 5 year Action Plan 2018-2022.
A high level steering group has been established to oversee the implementation of the Action Plan on which the Department of Education and Skills (DES) is represented.
Key areas of progress to date in the area of Education include:
- Implementation of the actions set out in the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022 on a phased basis, including the Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme.
- Schools participating in the Scheme will continue to receive additional supports and resources on the basis of their ongoing engagement with the terms of the Scheme.
- A 3 year e-hub pilot project is currently being implemented under the Scheme to extend the range of subject options through Irish for students in post-primary schools in the Gaeltacht.
- Contracts for two new Irish-medium teacher education programmes were awarded in order to increase the supply of teachers with the competence to deliver high quality Irish-medium education in schools.
- The DES has provided a package of supports for each of the five post-primary schools located on islands to help address their unique sociolinguistic context.
- A scoping paper is being finalised to plan and support the implementation of a Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) pilot project. A steering group will be established to advise and oversee the project.
- A review of Senior Cycle Irish is under way and draft specifications are due to be ready for public consultation in Q4 2019.
- The public consultation on the policy and practice in relation to the granting of exemptions from the study of Irish concluded on the 18th January. Over 11,000 responses were received and these are currently being analysed. The results will inform the revised circulars.
- Assessment guidelines for Junior Cycle Irish have been published.
- Ongoing access to continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers to support the implementation of the Primary Language Curriculum (PLC) is being provided.
- Irish language textbooks are being provided to support the introduction of new curricula.
- Immersion education guides for Gaeltacht primary and post-primary schools have been published.
- The Department increased the funding to support the Gaelbhratach programme at primary and post primary level.
- A new online patronage process system (OPPS) has been developed by the Department which provides objective information and allows parents to express their preferences in relation to the patronage model and language of instruction in respect of the new schools being established.
