Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. Le roinnt seachtaine anuas, tá múinteoirí ag cur glaoch orm maidir leis an easpa scrúdú béil agus le cé chomh deacair is atá an páipéar. Tá an tAire ag rá go mbaineann an obair béil i rith an chúrsa, na CBAs, le fíorshaol na ndaltaí. Tá na múinteoirí ag rá an mhalairt. Tá siad ag rá go bhfuil an páipéar nua ródheacair. Bheadh roinnt de na ceisteanna deacair ó thaobh an Bhéarla nó an eolaíochta freisin. Caithfidh na daltaí aistí ar roinnt de na hábhair sin a scríobh as Gaeilge.

In recent days, I have been inundated with calls from teachers who have raised serious issues about Irish at junior cycle. I am raising this issue in the context of the lack of oral work, which is at the heart of this. The Minister referred to classroom-based assessment being in place in order to develop Irish language skills, but I am not sure that will work because while he said that will be more authentic, the sample examination paper which has been provided to schools is completely inauthentic in terms of the day-to-day lives of students. It is really difficult and some of the terminology is new to me and to some teachers. It refers to descriptive imagery and so on, which is difficult not only in Irish but also in English. There are ways of doing this properly, but the danger is that, following the removal of oral Irish as an examination component and the introduction of a difficult Irish exam at that level, we run the risk of turning people off the language, which would be very unfortunate.

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