This morning/afternoon.
Dundalk, County Louth.
Students and parents of Coláiste Lú staged a walkout over the school’s decision to no longer teach exclusively through Irish.
Parents say students are being “forced” to be educated through English (despite commitments made to providing Irish-medium education in the area) in an attempt to ‘de-Gael’ students’ education.
Ultach writes:
The education system in Ireland still trying to prevent Irish children who want to learn Irish from learning Irish….
Pupils To Stage Walkout At Colaiste Lu (LMFM
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For those of you familiar with Regina Doherty, have you met her constituency colleague/rival, FG councillor Sharon Tolan? Same hair style, same clothes style, same eejity grin. Regina’s Mini-me has recently been made chair of the Louth Meath Education Training Board, and if any Gaelgoiri thinks she gives a rats bottom about Irish, they’d be mistaken.
But isn’t that the Fine Gael default position anyway
West Brit all the way
Its to be expected
So I doubt anyone is a risk of being mistaken about Cllr Tolan
Are the staff and school going to give up their allowances for teaching through Irish?
Arh sure it will be grand
Now the English are leaving the EU Irish will be now the most important spoken language of commerce in the EU
Jumped up middle class crap, English is the language of this country
Extinction is a natural progression for all languages. The worlds too small for this provincial language barrier crap. Make Irish optional if people want to dedicate their time on a hobby language that’s fate is inevitable let then them at it. People around the world need to talk more now more than ever, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic , but Irish is insular and a bit to anti-immigration (racist ) for me. Funny its all pale faces in that photo too. I’ve heard parents talk about the fringe benefits of Irish schools while at the same time knocking educate together schools and its disgustingly racist talk altogether.
no one is being forced to be educated through Irish… its a choice. As for your comments about racism what in the hell are you talking about….
+1.
I’m talking about non Irish speaking parents , who I’ve spoken too, who are not necessarily big fans of Irish language either, but in hushed tones admitting to sending kids to Gaelscoil because there’s too many foreigners and blacks in regular schools and way too many in the educate together schools. So the racism factor adds to the ticking over of the language.
what a load of mickey
The implication was made that the adherents of the language are inherently racist and insular, from my experience that can be thoroughly rejected as nonsense, we live all over the world and are generally more keen to learn the local language than our monoglot compatriots
..don’t you mean quinoa eating monoglot compatriots?
I knew a teacher who worked in a Gaeilscoil, who subsequently left teaching altogether to work in business, who mentioned that many parents sent their kids to gaeilscoileanna as there was a perception that there were fewer immigrant kids – it would be a pity if that were the case, though it would not surprise me.
it’s not a perception
Racism isn’t the fault of a language.
“Irish is insular and a bit to anti-immigration (racist )”
Irish is a language. It is no more racist than Russian,Chinese, Spanish or Arabic.
It is racist to assume that just because you see white skin you see Irish middle-class people. There are white people from a number of ethnic and language backgrounds in gaelscoileanna. Racism is negative discrimination based on ethnicity. Ethnicity is about more than skin colour.
It is also racist to assume that the reason you see majority white faces in a photo of gaelscoileanna is because of racist policy.
It assumes that people of colour cannot decide their own priorities for educating their children. That they are incapable of making a decision on language medium based on what they value. The real reason that there are less non-Irish kids in Gaelscoileanna is because immigrant parents tend not to value the language as much.
40 years ago it was the the language of ignorant peasantry, republicans, communists and also nazis somewhow..now it’s the godawful Volvo-driving locally-sourced quinoa munchers, which is it?
There is an undeniable intellectual advantage to a multi-lingual society, outright rejection of our language based on the “waste of money” argument is the usually the projection of a cultural ignorance hidden behind a flint-minded cost of everything value of nothing boor mentality..
A bad move by the school. Gaelscoileanna perform better than most private schools in State exams, and learning through Irish gives pupils an advantage in learning foreign languages. This is a retrograde move and should be reversed.
Depends on how you grade performance. On a purely points based basis, a lot of the higher grades are for auto-bonus points purely for an accident of birth into a Irish speaking family and being fully immersed and fluent at 5 years old before starting school. Using that logic , some kids should get auto bonus points for doing exams through Polish or Portuguese.
They don’t get much by way of bonus points anymore pat
Well that’s good news on a Friday evening at least . Have a good weekend everyone!!
You can get a maximum bump of 7.5 /3.25/0 (depending on subject – see below).
Bonus marks at the rate of 10 per cent of the marks obtained will be given to a candidate who obtains less than 75 per cent of the total marks in the case of the following subjects:- Latin, Greek, Classical Studies, Hebrew Studies, History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, Science, Business, Economics, Economic History, Agricultural Science, Agricultural Economics, Home Economics, Music, Business Studies, History and Appreciation of Art, Civic, Social and Political Education, Religious Education, Arabic, LCVP Link Modules – written component only.
Bonus marks at the rate of 5 per cent will be given to a candidate who obtains less than 75 per cent of the total marks in the case of the following subjects:- French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Accounting, Engineering, Construction Studies, Materials Technology (Wood), Metalwork, Junior Certificate Technology, Leaving Certificate Technology, Typewriting, Russian and Japanese.
Above 75 per cent the bonus will be subjected to a uniform reduction until the candidate who scores 100 per cent gets no bonus.
No bonus will be given in the case of the following subjects:- Technical Graphics, Design and Communication Graphics, Leaving Certificate Art (other than History and Appreciation of Art).
https://www.examinations.ie/?l=en&mc=ca&sc=im
Also, if the contention that Gaeilscoileanna are the preserve of the middle classes (which may or not be true, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that they are), this could account for it also – children’s test scores are a great predictor of parental income.
You can bet if children of Polish, Brazilian etc, ever got the benefit of extra credit by doing all state exams through their parents first language there would be calls of unfairness from everyone , especially Gaeilgoirs .They’ll pipe down about the so called benefits of speaking a second language then when its their own kids losing their unfair edge to second generation children of foreign parents. Maybe bilingual polish kids can pick up Irish easier than monoglots , or maybe they suffer the same difficulties or worse. And because the subject is compulsory if you are struggling your whole education is going to feel the lag. Which it the way middle class and aspiring middle class Gaeilgoirs like it.
No extra points for studying or doing exams through Irish in the northeast but Irish medium schools in deprived areas both rural and urban consistently outperform similar English medium schools, not a Volvo or poke of quinoa in sight.
There isn’t a why here.
Why are they doing this?
I suspect its because of a shortages of Teachers with good enough Irish to teach it, but why not say it in the article?
More context here Medium: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/students-stage-walkout-over-lack-of-subjects-being-taught-through-irish-1.4009388
Meanwhile: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/irish-medium-schools-continue-to-outperform-on-feeder-lists-1.3719834?mode=amp