Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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799. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of implementing the recommendation on page 12 of the 20 year strategy on the Irish language 2010-30 on offering partial immersion programmes to all children in schools, in particular, the cost of upskilling and professional development of teachers to teach additional subjects in the Irish language. [1080/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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A new more mainstreamed approach, to that set out in the 20 Year Strategy on the Irish language, is being adopted by the Department in relation to language teaching and the embedding of language skills in our primary schools. In fact, a new language curriculum has been prepared by the NCCA for junior infants to second classes. It will include both English and Irish. It will be introduced to these primary pupils from next September. Its introduction will be accompanied by Continuing Professional Development , provided by the Department's PDST team. There are no specific professional development costs attached to the development of this material.

Guidance on the use of CLIL will be one of the areas in which Support Material for teachers, developed by the NCCA, will be provided to. The Support Material includes practical advice, illustrated with videos and photos, to inform the teaching of oral language, reading and writing in the school's first and second languages.