Leaving Cert changes: Oral to be worth 40% in Irish

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Leaving Cert changes: Oral to be worth 40% in Irish

SIGNIFICANT changes are planned for the way young people learn Irish in schools, the Irish Examiner can reveal. Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has confirmed oral examinations will now make up 40% of marks for Irish in the Junior Cert from 2010 and in the Leaving Cert from 2012 onwards.

Mr O'Keeffe said the changes will "give far greater significance to proficiency in oral Irish" and "make it more meaningful for pupils", but said changes to the written Irish syllabus are "not on the radar".

To support the change, the minister is planning to reform how primary school teachers learn Irish after a report found that a quarter of them did not have confidence in their ability to speak the language.

A postgraduate course will be put in place as part of a "national centre for excellence" for the language at Coláiste Íosagáin in Ballyvourney, Co Cork.

This idea was previously announced but later abandoned by Mr O'Keeffe's predecessor, Mary Hanafin.

Mr O'Keeffe said he is "absolutely committed" to the plan and is in discussions with University College Cork, which will run the course. A strategy group was established the week before Christmas with the department, UCC and Údarás na Gaeltachta to see how it can be progressed as quickly as possible. Mr O'Keeffe said the centre would "empower teachers in their linguistic abilities of Irish".

"I think we should have a national centre in a Gaeltacht area where we would provide in-service courses for teachers where trainee teachers from the teacher colleges could be immersed in Irish as part of their overall programme and I'm currently having discussions with UCC in relation to postgraduate courses," said Mr O'Keeffe.

The centre will also provide support and training for Irish dancing and music.

Changes have also been announced for the Leaving Cert timetable to reduce the number of writing-intensive subjects in the first three days. The changes include dropping chemistry from the second day. The changes mean that the 53,000 students sitting the exams this year will have a free half-day in the first three days.

Bernie Judge, education and research officer of the Teachers Union of Ireland, welcomed the changes. "This is really just to strengthen the changes made last year," she said.