Leading SC to act as mediator in Dingle Pobalscoil talks An end may be in sight in the saga surrounding the all-Irish teaching policy at Dingle secondary school Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne as local parents group Concerned Parents of Corca Dhuibhne (CPCD) have suggested mediation talks in an effort to resolve the problem out of court. "We suggested meditation talks and both the Department of Education and the Pobalscoil agreed to take part" explained a spokesperson for CPCD. "The talks will take place in the school in either early or late January and will be mediated by Dr. Gerard Hogan Senior Counsel (pictured left). A practising barrister and a member of the Governing Council of UNIDROIT, Dr. Hogan is currently Chairman of the Law Reporting Council of Ireland. He is a former member of the Constitution Review Group, Competition and Mergers Review Group and the Offences Against the State Acts Review Group. He is currently a member of the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure and is a former member of the Competition Authority’s Advisory Panel. He is also a Judge of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Tribunal, the author of several books and numerous articles on topics including Irish constitutional law, administrative law, conflict of laws and European Community law. Dr. Hogan has also appeared in and argued many important cases in the High Court, Supreme Court, European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.
Concerned Parents of Corca Dhuibhne lodged high court proceedings against Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne earlier this year in an effort to tackle the all-Irish teaching policy at the new Pobalscoil (which opened in September 2007 amalgamating Meánscoil na Toirbhirte and Meánscoil na mBráithre) and encourage bilingual teaching methods as, according to CPCD, children who weren't proficient in the Irish language were being sidelined. "The High Court proceedings will run parallel with this mediation, hopefully we can arrive at a solution through talks at the school but if not we will have no choice but to revert to legal action" the spokesperson added. "We are currently looking at a court date in February if these talks fail, we sincerely hope that doesn't happen and that we can come to a solution." The parents group are seeking bilingual teaching as they feel that many of their children cannot achieve their full academic potential unless teaching in English and in Irish is available as the Pobalscoil is Dingle's only second level public school. The schools Board of Management have maintained that additional Irish classes have been made available to those who need extra help and the school's Gaeltacht status dictates the necessity for a strong Irish language policy. However following a series of public meetings, the signing of petitions and a sit out by some students at the school last year the Concerned Parents felt that legal action was the only avenue left for them to take with some students from the Dingle catchment area leaving the school to seek out second level education in Castlegregory and Tralee. "The best way to solve any problem is to sit down and talk about it' said Seán Ó'Suilleabháin of the school's Board of Management, "we warmly welcome this development and will give our full support to there talks."
Visit www.dingleparentsforjustice.com for more background on the issue.
4 comments:
The Principal and Board of Management should resign or be removed immediately as they have acted disgracefully.Every child deserves and needs an education.The school authorities are denying them this.They have split a community down the middle and this rift willm take a long time to heal.Some example that is been given to the children.How come there was no problems in the two existing schools?
There were problems in the two existing schools but they wern't being dealt with. At least now there's a debate happening.
Nobody is being denied an education here. It's a question of rights. Rights to which both parties are entitled to.
Yes they are being denied an education i ask you if you are not able to learn, are you being educated?
The answer is undoubtedly NO so yes the pupils of this school are being denied an education. And rights? i guess you are referring to the right to speak ones own language? well yes i agree with you there but i do not agree when that argument is used just so that the school can get greater grants.
There were no problems in the other schools as regards language.
everyone kept thier mout shut because there was money involved.
The following document sets out to explode some of the myths regarding Gaeltacht schools and the method of teaching that they employ.This is done under the following headings:
(1)Classification of schools and what that entails.
(2)Selected "A1" schools in Gaeltacht areas and there methods of instruction.
(3)Distance between "A1" schools in the Gaeltachts and the nearest available alternative,either within or outside the Gaeltachts,that operate a bilingual,all english or a streaming language policy.
(1)A1 means instruction in All-Irish.
A2 means some pupils do all subjects through Irish.
B means schools that teach one other subject,apart from Irish,through the medium of Irish.
A school is given a classification based on what are known as the "October Returns" which are submitted to the Department of Education and Science each Autumn by all school Principals.
Having an A1 classification confers certain benefits to a school.These include " almost 40% extra in per capita funding and each school has one additional teaching post in its overall allocation. An additional allowance of €3,068 is also paid to teachers who teach through Irish in Gaeltacht schools."(Jimmy Devins TD,Dail Eireann - Volume 639-16 October,2007-Adjournment Debate)
(2)The following 3 secondary scools in various Gaeltachts are classified as A1 All-Irish schools by the Department of Education and Science:
Scoil Mhuire is a small coeducational school in the centre of Ballingeary village near Gougane Barra.The majority of students are natives of surrounding townlands with an odd person from Bantry which is 10 miles to the south.It is a Gaeltacht school in which the teachers have a strong interest in the language and it is through the medium of Irish that most subjects are taught.(Department of Education and Science School Inspection Report,published February 2007.)
Gairmscoil Fheichín Naofa, Corr na Móna is the only second-level school in the Joyce Country Gaeltacht. Students come to the school from the sparsely populated area between Maam and Cong and between Lough Corrib and Lough Nafooey. The school has a draft Irish policy that it is hoping to implement from September 2007. In it the school is seen as having a central role in the preservation and development of the Irish language in the district. It is conscious of its statutory duty under the Education Act 1998 in this regard. The policy recognises that English is the normal language of home and of communication for the vast majority of students. It states that Irish is the usual language of instruction, administration and communication in the school. The three science classes observed during the evaluation were conducted bilingually, with a strong bias towards English, especially in the case of the third-year class. Most of students’ work was in English as many of the students
do not have sufficient Irish.(Department of Education and Science School Inspection Report,published February 2008).Interesting to note that this school is in Minister for Gaeltacht,Community and Rural Affairs,Eamon o Cuiv's own backyard.
Coláiste Muire, Tourmakeady is a coeducational secondary school situated on the edge of Loch Mask in the breac-Ghaeltacht of south Mayo. When the school was first opened it was a preparatory college under the trusteeship of the Mercy sisters but the school is now under private management. Irish is the language used as a teaching medium and as the medium of communication in the school. There are two streams in each year group, one stream in which all subjects are taught through Irish and the other stream where both Irish and English are used as teaching media. The outcome of this policy is that classes in both streams are mixed ability classes. It was indicated that this provision was working well as it caters for the varying language backgrounds of students in the school’s catchment area.(Department of Education and Science Scool Inspection Report,published November 2008).
These schools have the authorities of Pobalscoil Corca Dhuibhne to thank for being 'outed'.However,far from being 'punished'these schools should be commended for looking after the educational needs of ALL of their communities.
The 2 previous secondary schools in Dingle,Presentation Convent and Christian Brothers School were both classified A1 All-Irish schools but it is common knowledge that they both operated bilingual instruction methods,in fact the Presentation Convent operated a two-stream method for a period of time.Although the Presentation Convent did this, more Irish was used in the Presentation Convent than the Christian Brothers School but a more practical approach was adopted.The authorities in the Presentation Convent deserve great credit for this as they catered to the needs of all the community.
(3)The following shows the distances between "A1" Gaeltacht schools and the nearest alternative.For simplicity purposes the A1 school is listed on the left with alternatives on the right with distances.Gaeltacht in brackets signify that there are non All-Irish schools in these Gaeltacht areas.
Galway Gaeltacht:
Pobalscoil MhicDara,Carna -Clifden 36.9km
Colaiste Chroi Mhuire,Spiddal -Galway 17.7km
-Oughterard 27.6km
Colaiste Colmcille,Inveran -Galway 29.4km
-Oughterard 39km
Gairmscoil na bPiarsach,Rosmuc -Clifden 30km
-Oughterard 35km
Donegal Gaeltacht:
Pobalscoil Gaoth Dobhair -Falcaragh 12.5km
Gairmscoil Chu Uladh -Letterkenny 29.5km
-Stranorlar 22.9km
Waterford Gaeltacht:
Meanscoil San Nioclas,An Rinn -Dungarvan 11.1km
-Cappoquin 28km
-Kilmacthomas 32.4km
Meath Gaeltacht:
Colaiste Pobail Rath Cairn -Navan 12.5km
-Trim 7.7km
Cork Gaeltacht:
Scoil Mhuire,Ballingeary -Mallow 24.8km
-Macroom 26.1km
-Bantry 29.3km
Colaiste Ghobnatan,Ballymakeera -Macroom 14.4km
Mayo Gaeltacht:
Colaiste Mhuire,Tourmakeady -Westport 26.6km
-Castlebar 26.1km
-Ballinrobe 10.1km
Colaiste Chomain,Rossport -Belmullet 27.4km(Gaeltacht)
Kerry Gaeltacht:
Pobalscoil Corca Dhuibhne -TRALEE 50KM
Distances are sourced from Google Maps.
One final point.Pobalscoil Corca Dhuibhne(PCD) deserves credit for been ranked in 86th position in a table of the top 400 schools in Ireland based on the number of students that progressed to third level education and on a number of other criteria.This table published in the Sunday Times gives the impression that PCD operated an all-irish policy for those students.It should be borne in mind that the students who completed their Leaving Certificate in June 2008 were in fact instructed bilingually.The first students to be fully instructed through Irish,if the new language policy remains,will be those that sit the Leaving Certificate in June 2012.It is interesting to note that the top ranked Gaeltacht school in 7th place was Scoil Damhnait,Achill which operates fully through the medium of English!
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