Professor Áine Hyland:

As it happens, I have a piece in The Irish Timestoday about the Irish syllabus. I have mentioned here the fact that under the new proposals from the national council there would be a distinction between schools - it is not clear whether it is schools or students but let us say it is schools - which are call L1 schools, in other words, schools teaching through the medium of Irish, such as Gaeltacht schools and other schools, and that there will be two separate syllabi, each at ordinary and higher level, in other words, there will be four new syllabi, but that the current foundation level programme will be abolished. That is a source of great concern for Irish teachers because the foundation level programme has been a very important programme for those who are not the high achievers - not the students we are concerned about when we are talking about higher education entry. At the other end of the spectrum, the concern is that in some Gaeltacht schools, for example, if they were required to teach the L1 curriculum, the higher curriculum, some of their students might not be able for it and that there would be problems there. The Irish language teachers, both those in Gaeltacht and Gaelscoileanna, are concerned, and the teachers in non-Irish language schools are concerned as well.

The proposal that we have suggested back to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is that it look again at the whole structure of what it is proposing, do not tie it necessarily into L1 and L2 schools, bring back the foundation course but add a fourth level or what we would call "the sárleibhéal" - the highest, higher than the higher level. That would be one option. Alternatively, we suggest it have a separate, much more advanced subject. We have talked earlier here today about the high achievers and those who have very high ambitions in a subject. There are a number of proposals being put forward by the Irish language groups. Unusually, all 12 organisations have come together. Because I come from an Irish-speaking background, I was working with them on this. We came up with this suggestion and they have all agreed to it. It is very unusual for 12 organisations to all agree to a proposal which is now being put to the NCCA and it is being asked to go back to the drawing board.