THE TEACHING OF the Irish language in the education system is at “crisis point” and must be overhauled “urgently” in order to encourage more students to study the subject in school, according to the General Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge. 

It comes as a record number of students did not sit an Irish exam as part of their Leaving Cert this year, as reported by The Irish Times. 

Of the 60,839 students who sat their Leaving Cert exams this year, 13,695 – or 22.5% – were not registered to sit an Irish exam. 

This is compared to 2023, when 12,578 students out of the 61,736 who sat the Leaving Cert did not sit an Irish exam. 

While Irish is a mandatory subject at second level, students are not required to sit the Leaving Cert exams for the language.

Many students who opt out of the exam have received an exemption from studying the language.

According to the Department of Education, exemptions are granted on the grounds of a student having been educated outside of Ireland for a certain period of time, having significant literacy difficulty or having other additional needs. 

The decision to exempt a student is made by the principal of the school following discussion with a student’s parents or guardians, the class teacher, special education teachers and the student themselves.

The Department of Education told The Journal that statistics on the number of students holding exemptions from the study of Irish for the 2023/24 school year are not yet available.

The Department said that last year, a total of 8,474 sixth year students held an exemption from the study of Irish granted at school level. This means 4,104 Leaving Cert students not holding a school level exemption from the study of Irish did not sit an Irish exam.

“This compares to 4,388 students not sitting a Mathematics examination and 4,463 students not sitting an English examination,” the Department said.

Julian de Spáinn, General Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, told The Journal that it is “very concerned” about Irish in education, adding that the language risks becoming an optional subject if more students continue to opt out of learning it. 

“It’s not a surprise for us. The numbers have been increasing over the last number of years,” he said.

We need to change the way Irish is taught throughout the system, from preschool the whole way through to third level. We need a flexible system that caters to students’ needs and to their abilities.

De Spáinn said Conradh na Gaeilge - a cultural and social organisation which promotes the Irish language – has been calling for the system to be based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

‘Skills-based approach’

The CEFR is an international standard for describing language ability. It organises language proficiency on a six-point scale, from A1 for beginners to C2 for those who have mastered a language. 

De Spáinn said the system focuses on a skills-based approach. “For example, a student who has a learning disability with writing the language, instead of excluding them from learning Irish, surely we should be able to include them and have a Leaving Cert for them that would be based on oral Irish only.

“For a student who comes late into the system, instead of excluding them from learning Irish, which is not a very good thing for integration, why couldn’t they do the beginner level for Leaving Cert and get their points based on that, recognising that they’re only in the system for a small number of years, therefore they wouldn’t be on the same level as other students who have gone through the system.”

The 2020 Programme for Government states that the government will provide “a comprehensive policy for the Irish language from pre-primary education to teacher education for all schools”. But de Spáinn says this commitment has not yet been met.

“We’re not in a good place in the schooling system, whereas outside of school, obviously, there’s huge interest in language. I think that’s growing more and more,” he said.

“Inside the education system at the moment, there’s a huge amount of problems there. We need an overall policy from preschool the whole way to third level to solve and to change the way that we look at Irish in the education system and allow people access Irish in the education system.”

According to de Spáinn, Wales, which is implementing the CEFR system, should be seen as an “exemplar” for Ireland when it comes to teaching and learning the native language. 

It is compulsory to learn Welsh in school up until the age of 16 and students must sit the GCSE exam either as a first language or second language. The country has set a goal that at least 40% of all learners will receive Welsh-medium education by 2050. 

‘Lack of ambition’

Ireland does not have such a goal, de Spáinn said. “There’s a lack of ambition when it comes to Irish in the education system from governments in previous years, not just the current government.”

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Tánaiste Micheál Martin denied exemptions for Irish were a “scam” and said he had witnessed difficulty in getting exemptions, particularly among students who may not have been born in Ireland. 

“We have a lot of people coming from different countries working in Ireland – French, Italian, Brazilian, Indian and so on – whose kids may not be in a position to do mandatory Irish. I think we need to analyse it a bit more,” he said.

“There are more people speaking the Irish language today than there was at the birth of the nation. The development of Gaelscoileanna over the last 30 years means we have a far greater proportion of people who are fluent in the Irish language and I know this myself [from] talking to them.

“I’d be more positive and optimistic about the Irish language.”

De Spáinn said that even with the current flawed system, he would encourage people to continue to learn Irish.

The Irish Language Network for the Public Sector has set a target that 20% of recruits to public bodies will be competent in Irish by the end of 2030.

“There’s more and more job opportunities that are arising for people who have Irish, even at the basic level,” he said.

“They’re looking for lawyers and lawyer linguists in Europe, they’re looking for accountants with Irish. There’s more and more opportunities going to be there for people who have Irish, so it’s good to keep the Irish going.”