CHARLIE TAYLOR. Wednesday, June 30, 2010
THE IRISH National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has warned the Government about the effects of cuts in the number of support language teachers for non-Irish national students.
The level of extra teaching support allocated to schools is determined by the numbers of eligible pupils enrolled and on their language proficiency. INTO said it had examples of schools where the number of pupils without English was increasing while the number of teachers was being cut.
The number of support staff has fallen by nearly 500 over the past year. There are 1,182 language support teachers at primary level and 365 at post-primary level.
Sheila Nunan, general secretary of INTO, said: “Two years’ teaching is only enough for children to develop surface understanding of a language and conversational competence. To get to a standard where newcomer children can learn subjects like science and geography through English takes a further five to seven years.”
Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0630/1224273623532.html
Tags: Irish
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Thursday, 9 July 2009
A legal challenge against a 270-year-old ban on the use of the Irish language in court proceedings in Northern Ireland has been dismissed in the High Court in Belfast.
An Irish language speaker, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Cathain, a member of the Shaws Road Gaeltacht in west Belfast, took the case after he was informed that his application in Irish for an occasional drinks licence could not be considered.
Court staff said the reason was that the Administration of Justice (Language) Act of 1737 stipulated that “all proceedings in courts of justice within this kingdom shall be in the English language”.
The drinks licence was sought in connection with a musical concert in the Culturlann, Falls Road, Belfast, said to be the foremost provider of Irish language events in the area and where Irish is generally spoken.
The case was heard last October when Michael Lavery, QC, argued: “Key to this case is if you are going to afford them (Irish speakers) the dignity of being Irish or going to pay lip service to it and trammel it or impede it with unnecessary restrictions.”
Yesterday Mr Justice Treacy dismissed Mr Cathain’s contention that the 1737 Act was incompatible with the European Charter for Regional and Minorities Language and secondly that the Act was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
(more…)
Tags: Irish
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