Four New Schools Approved
Preasráiteas Press Release |
29 July 2010
Four New Schools Approved
Chief Executive Officer of Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta, Seán Ó Coinn, has welcomed the Minister of Education’s decision to approve four new Gaelic-Medium primary schools. The new schools in Magherafelt, Kilkeel, Limavady and Ballymena, will bring the total number of primary schools providing Irish-medium education to 35 in the north, and 169 in total throughout the country. According to Seán Ó Coinn, the approval of four schools by the Department reflects the growing public confidence in Irish-Medium bilingual education. He stated: “International research has shown consistently that there are many educational advantages in educating children in a second language at an early age and this message is now getting across to parents.” The Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta CEO extended his congratulations to the local parent groups involved, for their diligent work in establishing the new schools, which will bring access to Irish-medium education for the first time to these four areas. In each of the four areas parent committees have been working for several years to build on the preschool provision, and to get to the stage where primary schools can be established. Seán Ó Coinn commended the parents for their sterling work, commenting: “Establishing Irish-medium provision is extremely challenging work, but these parents have persevered and are pioneers, taking historic steps to ensure that young people in these areas will have access to Irish in the future.” Responding to criticism cited in the media, Mr. Ó Coinn reiterated that there are no vacant Irish-medium places in any of the four areas concerned: “These are the first Irish-medium schools in these areas; therefore there is no danger of duplication of provision. Irish-medium schools are approved on exactly the same basis as English-medium schools in the Controlled, Catholic and Integrated sectors. There are no special circumstances for IM schools” The Irish-medium Council CEO commented that parents in the four areas have many English-medium schools which they can choose for their children. Now for the first time they will have one Irish-medium option. He added that there are as many as 10 primary schools in Ballymena Town alone: 2 Integrated, 6 Controlled and 2 Catholic primaries. He pointed out that some of these schools had admitted fewer than 10 pupils in each of the last 3 years, whereas Irish-medium schools require a minimum of 12 pupils in their first year to qualify for DE funding. Parents interested in sending their children to any of the new Irish-medium schools should contact Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta on 028 9032 1475.Contact DetailsFor more information contact Seán Ó Coinn, Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta Phone: 028 90 321475Email: socoinn@comhairle.org