Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 218: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made on the commitment given in the Programme for Government to build on the provision of in-service for primary teachers in teaching drama through Irish in the 2006/2007 school year by encouraging English medium primary schools to teach more subjects through Irish. [18868/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Drama Curriculum contains a focus on An Ghaeilge agus Drámaíocht. It advocates the use of drama in Irish and asserts that 'the greatest benefit of drama in Irish is that it can bring fluency in the language'. The curriculum also alludes to the use of drama by the teacher 'in order to prompt and extend the use of Irish'.

The curriculum supports the integration of Irish and drama and refers to the fact that such integration will assist the child's drama education and at the same time help him/her to achieve greater fluency and expressiveness in Irish (Primary School Drama Curriculum, Teacher Guidelines, P. 20).

A team of thirty-two trainer designates was appointed to the Primary Curriculum Support Programme, (PCSP) in 2005, a year in advance of the roll out of in-service seminars. The team comprised fully qualified primary school teachers from schools of diverse backgrounds and with broad interests in drama and Arts Education. The designate trainers attended a number of training sessions during the course of the academic year 2005-2006. In addition, they explored and experimented with aspects of the drama curriculum in their schools. The training which teachers ultimately received in Drama was reflective of this broad range of experience.

Drama in-service seminars were delivered over the course of two non-consecutive school closure days in 2006-2007. In addition to this, schools were also sanctioned to take one school-based planning day for Drama.

In all, a total of 1,737 drama seminars were delivered to primary school teachers. A total of 39,997 participants attended the drama in-service seminars.

The session of each of the drama in-service days which had a focus on 'Drámaíocht trí Ghaeilge' had two aims:

to develop drama as a subject in its own right

to demonstrate how Irish can be used as a living language in the context of the drama lesson.

Ongoing Support

In 2007-2008, the Arts cuiditheoir team continues to provide support for Dramaíocht trí Ghaeilge where they have been requested by schools to do so. One aspect of the work of these cuiditheoirí has been in modelling strategies which focus on Dramaíocht trí Ghaeilge in classrooms.

The Gaeilge/Tús Maith team has also been promoting the use of Drama as a methodology for the teaching of Gaeilge.

The Campaí Samhraidh initiative for disadvantaged schools will have a focus on Dramaíocht trí Ghaeilge.

The INTO magazine InTouch published an article which aims to support Dramaíocht agus an Ghaeilge in schools, 'I dtreo na Drámaíochta — October 2007'.