Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 373: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made in ensuring that relevant third level colleges and voluntary organisations for Irish will be asked to provide improvement courses in spoken Irish for teachers as announced on 11 March 2007. [28578/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As part of new measures aimed at improving outcomes in Irish language learning and proficiency, a subject-specific support service for Irish has been established. The service forms part of the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) which provides programme and subject specific curricular support, and support for teaching and learning generally in second-level schools.

The support service for Irish has been designed to provide professional development support to second-level teachers of Irish generally and support for the teaching and learning of all aspects of the curriculum. One of the primary objectives of the service is to support the use of Gaeilge as a communicative language in schools and classrooms.

The service is staffed by a dedicated team of professionals led by a National Coordinator and a team of six regionally based development officers. The team is managed by the Steering Committee of the SLSS and its work is directed by a professional advisory group which includes representatives of my Department, the State Examinations Commission, An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochts, Foras na Gaeilge and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

To date the service has concentrated on the induction of team members and the preparation of seminars for teachers of First Year Irish. 54 seminars have been planned nationally for Term One. It is hoped that two teachers of First Year Irish from all second-level schools will have had access to these seminars by the end of Term Two of the current school year. It is also intended to offer a targeted seminar to teachers of First Year Irish in Irish-medium and Gaeltacht schools in the second term.

The support service has also been undertaking an audit of the professional development needs of the teachers with whom it has been working and this will inform its work into the future. The service will shortly be looking at ways to make courses available to support teachers who wish to upskill themselves in the spoken language.

A co-ordinating committee, Coiste Comhordaithe na Gaeilge, has also been established to advise on co-operative elements of the overall work to be carried out on the promotion of the Irish language within the education system. The committee is comprised of representatives from An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG), Údarás na Gaeilge and Foras na Gaeilge. The committee has held a number of meetings to date.