Irish language exams set for overhaul

[Harold F. Schiffman]

12 March 2007

Irish language exams set for overhaul

By Caroline ODoherty

MORE marks are to be given for spoken Irish in the Junior and Leaving Cert
exams under a government plan to boost proficiency in the language. From
next September, first year students enrolling in secondary school will
spend less time studying the written word and more time speaking as they
prepare for exams that will allocate 40% for the oral component. The oral
test currently counts for 25% of overall marks at Leaving Cert and just
20% in the Junior Cert.

Oral Irish will remain optional for Junior Cert students, even though only
12 schools and 400 students currently sit it, but Minister for Education
Mary Hanafin said she hoped the availability of greater marks would
encourage more schools to offer it as an option. Ms Hanafin said the
changes, the first since oral Irish became part of the exams 35 years ago,
were intended to address the perception among students that Irish was
irrelevant or too difficult, and the decline in numbers taking honours
Irish at Leaving Cert. I believe by placing extra emphasis on the spoken
language we can end the situation where people spend 12, 13 or 14 years in
school learning Irish and are not able to speak it.

The new marking structure will apply for the first time to students
sitting the Junior Cert in 2010 and the Leaving Cert in 2012. Marks for
the written and aural components of the exams will be reduced to 10% and
50% respectively. Changes to the Irish curriculum and the way it is taught
will be required and the minister has asked the National Council for
Curriculum and Assessment and the council of Irish-speaking and Gaeltacht
schools (COGG)  to review the text books and teaching materials currently
in use. This policy decision has significant implications for teachers. It
represents a challenge for them, she said. She said teachers would receive
help and training to implement the changes, which will come on stream this
autumn.

Other initiatives announced by the minister yesterday include Irish summer
camps for 600 primary school pupils from disadvantaged schools,
scholarships to enable 200 second level students from disadvantaged areas
attend the Gaeltacht, and a CD of Irish songs for general educational use.
No decision has been made on the future of the proposed national training
centre for Irish language teachers in Ballyvourney, west Cork but extra
COGG staff are to be employed there in the meantime to begin revising
teaching materials. Ms Hanafin said she had also asked dars na Gaeltachta
to draw up proposals for the establishment of a traditional music
education centre.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=27566-qqqx=1.asp

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