Evidence of Growing Demand For Irish-Medium Education

As recently reported by the Irish Examiner, there has been a 33% jump year to year in the number of students opting for an Irish language certificate with a corresponding increase of 28% in the number of schools offering the certificate.  The continued resurgence of the Celtic tongue of Ireland continues apace despite lack of support for the language by Dublin. Figures cited in the Examiner article show 14,172 students did the optional test, one third more than last year, and the number of schools where they were carried out is up 28% in a year to 251. That is nearly 100 more than in 2012, and up from 54 schools in 2010 when less than 1,700 students did the oral test. Niall Murray in the Examiner article titled, “Rise in Numbers Taking Oral Irish Highlights Need to Solve Dispute”, focuses on the strains being placed on the Irish educational system as a result of the explosive growth in demand for Gaelic medium education. Quoting from the article: “A jump in the number of students doing an oral Irish test for Junior Certificate highlights the need to resolve a teacher’s dispute over junior cycle assessment, a principal’s leader has claimed.”

The resurgence of the Celtic tongue in Ireland has also been hailed in an article in the always excellent An Sionnach Fionn under the title “Irish-Medium Education Overcoming the Odds”. This article strikes a positive note for the Celtic language of Ireland. The article, in comparing the benefit enjoyed by other European languages under threat which flow from government support, points to the growth in Irish-Medium education in spite of the neglect of the Irish government. What is encouraging to Irish language activists is that this growth is due to the demand of parents for an Irish language education for their children:

 “With recent surveys showing that 25% of parents would opt to send their children to Irish-medium schools if available it is clear that the demand for a plurality in education is there. Unfortunately we have a long way to progress before we catch up with the linguistic rights enjoyed by our European peers.”  - An Sionnach Fionn

http://ansionnachfionn.com/2014/09/04/irish-medium-education-overcoming-...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/rise-in-numbers-taking-oral-irish-h...