You are what you learn

I grew up with the pleasure of witnessing Gillian McKeith droning on television that ‘you are what you eat’ during the noughties. Later heightened notoriety arrived for Gillian in 2010 when she appeared to ‘fake’ fainting to avoid completing yet another bushtucker trial in the hit television show ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here!’ I never thought I would ever say this, but there is a lot of lessons to learn and similarities to draw from both Gillian McKeith and ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here!’ for the teaching of Irish in 2024.

The teaching of Irish in 2024 in this jurisdiction is very much like a bushtucker trial in itself. Just like a bushtucker trial, the odds are very much stacked against those completing the trial. Our Irish teachers are working in a system that makes the teaching of the language nearly impossible.

Primary pupils, from the English-medium sector, have little or no systemic or systematic relationship with a second language and we have witnessed a massive drive towards STEM / STEAM provision over the last two decades. Given the marginalisation of our indigenous language by the state, I would be of the opinion that this substitutional drive, rather than complementary and parallel, has a bigger impact on the subject of Irish than any other.

The approach to language learning in Wales is in stark contrast to the current approach here with the strategy ‘Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers’ encouraging effective second language teaching approaches and methods. The Welsh Government states clearly,

“we want all our learners to have the opportunity to be bilingual” and recognise that they must “increase the number of learners in English-medium schools that succeed in acquiring the language.”

Language policy in Scotland is in complete contrast to the lack of policy in this jurisdiction also. Scotland’s ‘1 + 2 Languages Initiative’, ensures that every child is exposed to three languages before the end of primary school (National Improvement Hub, 2022) and focuses heavily on the introduction of primary learners to ‘the joys of learning languages’ as part of a revival of language learning in Scotland in recent years.

Ushioda (2017) posits that education must use language learning as a means of confronting issues of identity and conflict in the wider social context. This is evident where The Scottish Government (2023) recognises that additional language learning inspires an openness and awareness of other cultures.

Consequently, I question whether or not our educational system is ‘missing a trick’ in the strategic vision of creating a ‘shared society’ and I question whether the political connotations of the ‘Irish language’ remain a deterrent to the overall approach to languages here (McKay, 2021).

Is ‘Irish’ the ‘elephant in the room’?

In Eugene McKendry’s piece of research titled ‘Irish & Other Languages in NI’s Education System’, which was commissioned by Gael Linn, he alludes to utterances that were heard at tables during the early discussions surrounding The Primary Modern Languages Programme in which it was stated, ‘The problem is Irish. If we could get rid of it’. I often sit and ponder what shape educational policy would take if ‘Irish’ ceased to exist.

In England, the teaching of a second language is compulsory at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. The ROI has also seen updated policy regarding additional language learning in recent months with the launch of the new Primary Framework and aspirations that all children will be exposed to three languages before the end of primary school.

So, what has this got to do with Gillian McKeith? Gillian was seen on our televisions on a weekly basis harping on that ‘you are what you eat’. To clarify, I am not disagreeing, but I have always believed that we have missed a trick along the way. I believe the continuum should focus less on ‘what you eat’ and more ‘what you learn’. Therefore, I pose the question:

How do we grow the number of fluent Irish speakers in the jurisdiction without primary provision in the English-medium sector and without a directed strategy to increase the numbers at GCSE at the post-primary level?

Since 2007, there has been a decrease of 49% in those studying Irish at GCSE level from 2710 to 1387 in 2023. At A-Level, the numbers have stayed somewhat the same (281 in 2007 and 285 in 2023). Despite the exponential growth of the Irish-medium sector in the same timeframe, the numbers choosing to sit the official examinations in the education system have either stayed the same or decreased.

It is easy to blame school leaders. Let’s not. This is far more nuanced than ‘sure the principal couldn’t care less about Irish’. Talk to Irish teachers and they will have a list of concerns, most of which will focus upon the lack of understanding of the benefits of second-language learning in the wider public, students entering Year 8 without a heightened awareness of languages in their totality and most pertinently, an unshakable belief that GCSE Irish is too difficult.

In response to concerns from language teachers regarding the grading process of languages, The Department of Education committed to review and investigate whether GCSE and A-Level languages were/are marked too severely in this jurisdiction. Commissioned by the Department of Education, CCEA completed said review but the results yet to be published by the Department of Education.

As a result of the Department’s failure to publish these findings, the rights of students whose talents and interests lie in languages are being directly discriminated against.

To clarify what we (as a system) are doing; we are sending our car for a service for MOT, allowing the mechanic to tell us what to fix, ignoring the mechanic and sending our car for MOT expecting our car to pass. And we are doing that every single year. Or, to use the hit ITV show by way of analogy once again; we are sending our teachers to the jungle, telling them they are going to face a number of bushtucker trials and leaving them there stranded without any support, asking them to find their way out of the jungle without a compass or machete to do so. Just like Gillian back in 2010, there is ongoing faking and fainting to avoid confronting the stark reality– simply put, Gillian did not want to do the bushtucker trials and our system does not want to recognise what is educationally correct and necessary.

As always, difficulty and challenge tend to mobilise us as a community, and I can provide two examples of hope in a system which makes the teaching of Irish ‘almost impossible’.

Firstly, entrant figures for GCSE and A-Level show that Irish is the top language for retaining entries from GCSE through to A-Level. Based on the 2022/23 enrolment figures for language qualifications here, 22.63% of students who studied Irish at GCSE in 2022 continued their studies at AS-level in 2023 while 18.77% of students who studied Irish at GCSE in 2021 continued their study to A-Level in 2023. Students who initially get to choose Irish are continuing with their studies and Irish teachers are not only providing top-class teaching but are also encouraging a love for our indigenous language.

Secondly, there is the ‘Scoil Spreagtha’ scheme which is truly pioneering. The scheme, organised by Gael Linn (in collaboration with Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin and Ulster University, thanks to funding from Foras na Gaeilge) is an accredited scheme to recognise and celebrate efforts made by English-medium primary schools to encourage the use of Irish in the school environment for the school year 2023/2024.

The pilot scheme intended to have 10 schools. However, over 130 schools declared an interest in July 2023 despite the call to action going out during school holidays. The scheme managed to reach a total of 82 English-medium primary schools and 14,785 pupils this year.

The value of the scheme? Incontestable. 76.2% of schools stated that their pupils were ‘definitely’ learning Irish. Interestingly, 48% of schools did not have a teacher with any form of competence in the Irish language before the ‘Scoil Spreagtha’ scheme and 66% of schools did not have a teacher with at least a GCSE competence in Irish.

The scheme has been proactive in ensuring that our primary students do not miss out due to the ineffective educational and language policy of the state. It is clear that the scheme is effective and successful, and schools have become ‘Spreagtha’ with an ever-growing demand for the scheme.

So far, 150 English-medium primary schools with over 34,000 pupils have declared an interest for the schoolyear 2024/2025. Let’s be unequivocal and forthright about the scheme’s objectives, it is a strategic approach to combat the consistent downward trajectory of the uptake of GCSE Irish as outlined above.

It seems to me that we can tend to shy away from the conversation surrounding the subject of Irish in the English-medium sector in the fear that it will show a vulnerability regarding our confidence in the Irish-medium sector. Our Irish-medium sector is the jewel in the crown of Irish language, it always has been since the efforts of pioneers and community activists on the Shaws’ Road in the 1960s and 1970s in revitalising the language. The Gaelscoileanna sector will always be vital in this regard. So it should be. It is special, all-inclusive and areason for celebration. It is different, in the most amazing of manners.

Teaching Irish as a subject in the English-medium sector does not devalue our jewel but rather strengthens it. In order to meet the exponential growth of the IME sector, we need Irish as a subject to be healthy in the English-medium sector. Moreover, due to the lack of post-primary IME provision that is currently available, many IME pupils have no choice but to attend an English-medium post-primary school. The healthier the subject is, the more the rights of our IME pupils who now attend EME will be protected.

We need to do more as a community of speakers to recognise the issues affecting the subject of Irish in the English-medium sector, whether that be the 49% decrease in those students completing GCSE since 2007, the number of post-primary schools who have stopped the learning of Irish at GCSE or A-Level or the impact that the dwindling number of beds available in the Gaeltacht summer colleges has had.

Yes, the Irish language ‘has always been cool’ as Móglaí Bap from Kneecap said. However, we do need to do our best to make sure that the subject of Irish in schools is always looked upon as being ‘cool’ and worthwhile. Seventeen days into her experience Gillian McKeith was banished and voted out of the jungle and she fainted and faked numerous times in order to bring that on. Let us not allow the system constantly fainting and faking to try and ‘make the teaching of Irish almost impossible’ but let us ensure that our Irish teachers are well-equipped to deal with the bushtucker trials that lie ahead.

The publishing of the results of the review of grading of languages at GCSE would be a good start. Sooner or later the truth will emerge.