Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to concerns about the failure rate in Irish for primary teacher training for students who studied in Great Britain in 2010 and 2011 (details supplied). [14491/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am not aware of any concerns identified in relation to the failure rates in the S.C.G. examination. The examination process for the S.C.G in the academic year 2010/11 is not yet complete as supplemental examinations are yet to be undertaken in August 2011. After supplemental results have been finalised, my Department will be in a position to give complete and accurate statistics for the current academic year.

The SCG and OCG are administered under contract from my Department by Marino Institute of Education. Strict quality assurance procedures for reliability and validity are applied to assessment and examinations for the SCG. In the academic year 2010/11, no change was made to the examination format nor to the criteria of assessment and the standards required to be successful in the examination.

Teaching Irish in primary education requires a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading and writing Irish. Candidates for the SCG who received their teaching qualification abroad are required to reach a similar level of competence in speaking, reading and writing the Irish language as teachers who receive their qualification in a College of Education in Ireland.