The variation in primary schoolteachers’ proficiency in the Irish language in English-medium schools is “a matter of significant concern”, according to a report from the Department of Education inspectorate.
Its annual report for 2024, which draws on the findings of 2,995 inspections, highlighted an “urgent need” to support teachers in improving their proficiency in Irish.
Some 51 inspections in primary schools, including 38 curriculum evaluations of Irish last year and a further 13 incidental language-focused inspections early this year, were carried out by department inspectors.
While most teachers demonstrated a good standard of spoken Irish during inspections, some “struggled to use Irish effectively”, with inspectors noting an “apparent lack of confidence among many teachers” in English-medium schools in using the language.
RM Block
“As a result, in several cases, feedback from inspectors to teachers about the quality of provision for Irish in their classrooms needed to be given in English or using a mix of both languages,” the report reads.
In less than half of the 250 Irish lessons observed during curriculum evaluations, teachers demonstrated a high level of proficiency in spoken Irish.
“There is a system-wide need to identify and implement new and innovative approaches to develop teachers’ language proficiency in Irish,” the report recommends.
It says a concerted effort is needed to encourage teachers to “take ownership” of their own professional learning to strengthen and maintain their proficiency in Irish.
A particular focus of the report is on the enactment of the primary language curriculum (PLC) relating to Irish. The integrated curriculum has the same structure for English and Irish and encourages a “plurilingual approach” to language learning.
It was implemented for all classes in primary schools from September 2019, however, inspection findings indicate the PLC is not yet enacted fully.
“The variation in teachers’ Irish language proficiency is a matter of significant concern. The inspections indicate that overall standards of teachers’ Irish-language fluency in English-medium schools are not what they should be to support the successful enactment of the PLC,” the report states.
Inspectors observed “notable variability” in children’s learning outcomes in Irish across English-medium schools, “indicating the overall limited enactment of the PLC in these schools”.
In many cases, it found lessons in Irish to be “overly focused” on vocabulary acquisition in isolation, with insufficient opportunity provided to use the language in meaningful contexts. In other lessons, inspectors found that teachers relied “too heavily” on textbooks.
Separately, the report highlighted that special education teachers were “deployed incorrectly” to teach maths or English to mainstream classes in almost a third of all primary schools inspected last year.
Post-primary school leaders, meanwhile, deployed teachers inappropriately in three-quarters of the schools inspected.
“The main issue in these schools was the misuse of special education teaching hours to form smaller subject classes for all students, or to create additional subject options,” the report states.
It recommends a review of teacher allocation and deployment processes to ensure resources are used effectively and meet policy goals.
Earlier this year, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said schools were resorting to reassigning special education teachers to mainstream classes due to teacher shortages.
The annual report acknowledged teacher supply issues at both primary and post-primary level, particularly in urban settings, while pressures reported were “especially acute” for some Irish-medium and special schools.
Overall, teaching quality was found to be good or better in 94 per cent of lessons evaluated at primary and special schools by inspectors last year. This fell to between 88 and 91 per cent of lessons across announced and unannounced inspections of post-primary schools.
Chief inspector, Yvonne Keating, said the inspection findings highlight “many strengths and successes” in the education system, but also point to some important areas where “improvement and development are required”.
