Our Government aspires to boost education through Irish – yet student numbers have fallen for the first time in 50 years

When it comes to learning a second or additional language in schools, there is a belief in many quarters that the younger you start the better. While there is research evidence to support this, it only holds true if children are exposed to lots of input in the new language. In other words, they need to hear lots of the second language in meaningful contexts.
Young children are very good at making sense of what is being said to them without fully understanding every word. As they make sense of what they hear, their understanding increases and they gradually begin to speak the second language, using single words at first and progressing to phrases and sentences over time. Children in Irish-medium early childhood naíonraí and primary gaelscoileanna experience this approach and it is the reason they have been so successful in enabling young children to acquire Irish. Language immersion education, as it is known, has been shown to be the most effective way to learn a second language. If we want to maximise the success of Irish in education, we need to establish more naíonraí, gaelscoileanna at primary level and gaelcholáistí at post-primary.
In DCU, my colleagues and I were commissioned by the Department of Education to examine the practice in immersion education contexts internationally to see what we might learn that would be of relevance to the Irish context. We also analysed a very extensive public consultation conducted by the Department of Education to inform a new policy for Irish-medium education outside the Gaeltacht that is currently being formulated.
Our key finding from other jurisdictions such as the Basque Country in Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales, was that the immersion approach in Irish schools was in line with best practice internationally. We face many of the same challenges as other jurisdictions in having suitably qualified teachers and teaching resources. The key finding from the public consultation was that the supply of Irish-medium schools needs to be greatly increased to meet parental demand.
An excellent example of how immersion education was greatly increased is the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. Like Irish in Ireland, the Basque language was forbidden during the regime of General Franco. Following the fall of Franco, the Basque Autonomous Community passed an education law in 1982 giving parents the right to choose the medium of instruction for their children: Spanish, Basque or bilingual Spanish and Basque.
The law also guaranteed that students will have sufficient practical knowledge of Basque by the time they are 16 years of age. Initially, many parents chose the bilingual model, but by ensuring that the Basque-medium model had high prestige, parents shifted to this model. Over 80 per cent of primary students now attend Basque-medium schools. To address teacher competency in Basque, the government invested significant funding into sabbatical courses for teachers in the 1980s and 1990s. Teacher competency in Basque is no longer an issue as teachers have come through the Basque-medium system.
Another example is that of Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government has set out an ambitious target to have one million Welsh speakers by 2050. Authorities in Wales studied the Basque experience and set out a strategy to help achieve the goal by increasing the number of students in Welsh-medium education from the current 22 per cent to 30 per cent by 2030 and to 40 per cent by 2050.
From our study of other jurisdictions, Basque and Welsh provide the best examples of success. Surveys over many decades in Ireland have revealed that 25 per cent of parents would choose a gaelscoil if there was one convenient to them. Following the Welsh example, a potential aim would be to increase the percentage of students attending Irish-medium primary schools outside the Gaeltacht from the current 6.7 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030, to 17 per cent by 2040 and to 25 per cent by 2050. As the number of students leaving gaelscoileanna increased, it would be essential to provide gaelcholáistí at post-primary.
The solution then appears to be relatively straightforward; we need to establish more Irish-medium schools outside the Gaeltacht with ambitious targets. This strategy would align with many government policies such as the 20-year strategy for Irish that indicates support will be provided to parents who wish their children to receive an Irish-medium education. Indeed, there was an aspiration in the current Government’s programme to work towards a doubling of the number of students receiving education through Irish. Far from increasing numbers, however, the number of Irish-medium students recently fell for the first time in 50 years.
The Department of Education indicated in documentation for the public consultation on Irish-medium education that, “given declining demographics … The opportunities for the establishment of new Gaelscoileanna are likely to be limited and other options are likely to be more sustainable”. It is not clear, however, what those other options might be. While the Department of Education funds the education system, schools are run and managed by patron bodies. The Department of Education does not have direct control over schools to mandate that they become Irish-medium schools. There have been a small number of examples throughout the country, the latest being Synge Street in Dublin 8, where schools opted to transfer to Irish-medium over time. This is a complicated process and it is unlikely that there would be sufficient schools to meet the ambitious targets set out above.
Based on our review of immersion education internationally, we recommended in our report that parents would have a right to choose Irish-medium education for their children as is the case for Basque. Without such a right, it is unlikely the status quo will change sufficiently to meet parental demand. One need only look at the snail’s pace of change in the transfer of patronage of primary schools to see how challenging it is to change the status quo, despite parental demand.
Pádraig Ó Duibhir is Professor Emeritus at Dublin City University
All reports arising from the international review and public consultation are available at: https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/a6fa7-consultation-process-to-develop-a-policy-on-irish-medium-education-outside-of-the-gaeltacht/