9.4 Irish-medium education in settings and

9.4 Irish-medium education in settings and schools outside the Gaeltacht

Plans are in place to further support Irish-medium education in settings and schools outside the Gaeltacht

In December 2019, the Department announced plans to develop the first comprehensive policy on Irish-medium education. This new policy, which will be developed in conjunction with other Departments including the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), will provide a framework for the delivery of high quality Irish-medium education in early learning and care (ELC) settings and schools outside the Gaeltacht. This policy is part of the overall framework of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish language 2010-2030 and will complement and build on the achievements of the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022.

The Inspectorate is participating in the intradepartmental group that has been established by the Gaeltacht Education Unit in the Department to progress the initial planning required for the development of this new policy. The policy development process will include a review of national and international research, and a review of provision for Irish-medium education in light of supply and demand, taking account of current trends and projected student enrolment. It will also involve a public consultation process to ensure the meaningful engagement of stakeholders throughout the policy development process.

A three-year pilot in Content and Language Integrated Learning commenced; as the pilot is ongoing, it has not yet been evaluated formally

In April 2019, the Minister for Education announced a three-year pilot initiative in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The aim of the CLIL pilot is to support the learning of Irish by teaching Physical Education (PE) and other subjects through Irish to children across different age groups.

The Content and Language Integrated Learning Project

The CLIL project, which was launched in April 2019, is a three-year pilot.

In almost all of the English-medium early learning and care (ELC) settings, primary and post-primary schools involved, the project is promoting Irish through learning various curriculum areas through Irish. In Irish-medium post-primary schools, the project is exploiting the experience of learning through Irish to develop further CLIL learning in Modern Foreign Languages.

The project is being developed in two phases. The first phase of the project, which ran during the 2019/2020 school year, was developmental. It included the design and trialling of a professional development programme and resources for early years educators and teachers. The second phase of the project, which commenced in 2020/2021, allowed the project to be extended to a greater number of schools and settings, and involved larger numbers of practitioners and teachers.

Inspectors assisted the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Unit of the Department in the establishment of the project. Nineteen schools and ELC settings were selected to participate in the CLIL pilot, which commenced in September 2019.

It is anticipated that the early years educators, teachers and pupils/students involved in the first phase will become ambassadors for the CLIL approach to language learning as the project progresses. As this pilot was still ongoing, it had not been evaluated by December 2020.