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Local language teacher crisis

Thursday, 22 July 2010

A PRIMARY school in Dublin 15 has been reduced to just one English language teacher to cater for over 100 foreign national pupils who don’t have English as their mother tongue. Come September Mary Mother of Hope senior national school in Littlepace will have just one language teacher for the non-Irish nationals amongst its 400 pupils. The situation is dramatically different from just two years ago when the school had three language teachers for its 300 pupils at the time. Dublin 15 schools have among the highest number of international students in the country – in fact, a number of primary schools have a student ratio of over 70 per cent international to less than 30 per cent Irish nationals. The international communities in the Dublin 15 area hail from 40 different nationalities. Local TD Joan Burton (TD) recently raised the matter in the Dáil where she called on the Department of Education to reconsider its cuts to the English language teacher supply to schools in Dublin 15. “The school finds that because it is a senior cycle school, it is now suffering severe cuts because the Department of Education officials argue that children only need two years of English language support,” she stated. “However, unless language skills are a specific focus over the entire course of a child's education, the child may well acquire speaking fluency without acquiring the academic fluency he or she needs to pursue further education. “We are in danger of creating a situation where these students will drop out of school after a few years because they are struggling in school and education. “This could lead us on the road to ghettoisation and we are already on the road to producing very large numbers of disaffected teenagers." In a Dáil response to Deputy Burton’s query, a Department of Education spokesperson stated that the Mary Mother of Hope school is entitled to a provisional allocation of one full-time temporary teaching post in respect to English as an Additional Language (EAL) support. “This allocation is provisionally sanctioned until August 31, 2011 and is subject to the EAL pupils for whom support is sought remaining in attendance in the school on September  30, 2010. “The school submitted an appeal to the primary staffing appeal board which was considered by the board at its meeting on June 21. “The board decided that a departure from the staffing schedule was not warranted in this case and the school has been notified in this regard. “The appeal board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.