Irish 'An integral part of the Education system in all schools'?
12 September 2008
Traditional Unionist Jim Allister has written to the Department of Education after the Minister, Caitríona Ruane, said she was working towards making Irish “an integral part of the education system in all schools”. Commenting the MEP said:
“It is bad enough that the Education Minister for Northern Ireland should be making a announcements about the future of our education system in Dublin but the contents of the speech are very worrying.
“The Minister told the Irish Medium Education Convention that she is working on a review of Irish medium education in Northern Ireland which, she claims, “will play an important part in ensuring that Irish medium education is fully and appropriately supported as an integral part of the education system in all schools; primary, post-primary, English and Irish medium”.
“I have written to the Department demanding to know how the Minister envisages Irish becoming an “integral part of the education system” in Controlled, Integrated and Roman Catholic Maintained Schools. While parents from the Protestant/Unionist community will be particularly concerned by this suggestion, I have also made the point that there is very little demand for the teaching of Irish from any section of Northern Ireland’s society.
“The latest figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications and local examination body, CCEA, revealed that Irish has suffered significant declines over the last two years. This year Irish A-level was only studied by 248 pupils – a fall of 11 per cent since last year and a drop of 24 per cent since 2006 while the number of entries for Irish GCSE fell by 332.
“It appears clear to me that the Minister is motivated not by what is in the best interests of Northern Ireland’s education system but merely in promoting her own narrow Republican agenda.”
ENDS
