Nov 02 2010
Fine Gael on Second Level Education
I recently described a few changes I would make to second level education in Ireland in Reforming Second Level Education in Ireland.
Today I read the more thought-out educational reforms suggested by Fine Gael (the largest opposition political party) in No more Republic of average.
I do not agree with all of the points. However, I was surprised to see that we have a common vision for the future direction of the compulsory teaching of Irish:
4 Abolish compulsory Irish
I passionately believe that Irish should not be a compulsory subject for the Leaving Cert. Sixteen-year-olds should make up their own mind if they want to study Irish. In my view the destruction of the language is based upon compelling every Irish student to study Irish whether they like it or not.
We need to introduce other European languages at a much earlier stage. Less than 15 per cent of all primary schools provide a modern European language, excluding Irish and English. Our performance in this area is not good enough. Our future success will be based on our students having greater aptitude in all languages. The earlier we offer new languages in the primary curriculum the easier it will be to reach the European average later in a child’s development.
I think the chances of this happening are significantly greater now!