Irish language at ‘crisis point’ after 2024 sees record number of pupils opt out of Leaving Cert exam

https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-language-education-school-reform-leaving-cert-6471464-Aug2024/

Posted by PoppedCork

4 Comments

  1. I remember about two sentences and how painful the subject was to learn, what changes need to be made

  2. SoftDrinkReddit on

    Well, frankly, I think we need to make it actually useful

    What do I mean?

    Think about you can’t do business in Irish almost anywhere

    For example, you couldn’t go in the majority of shops and ask for whatever you happen to want in Irish

    Couldn’t be done. The shopkeeper will ask you to speak English. My point is if you can’t even do business in the language well, no shit it’s falling apart

  3. OvertiredMillenial on

    Or, to put it another way, 77.5% of Leaving Cert students did sit Irish, which is a pretty decent percentage – certainly doesn’t scream ‘crisis point’.

    Also, I’m pretty you’ll find that a greater percentage of Leaving Cert students spent much of their childhood overseas (which gives them an exemption), and that a higher percentage of students have been correctly diagnosed with dyslexia and other issues, which gives them an exemption too.

    Not forcing people to do a subject they’d likely really struggle at is not a bad thing.

  4. So if you read the actual story:

    – Most people who didn’t take Irish at LC had an exemption, meaning they were immigrants who didn’t study the language in primary school or had learning difficulties of some kind.

    – If you remove those people with exemptions from consideration, about the same number of people didn’t take the Irish exam as the other mandatory subjects (English and maths).

    Where is the crisis?