Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Gaeltacht

Chapter 2 The Project Programme and its Components

Chapter 3 Children with Reading Difficulties

Chapter 4 The Evolution of the Remedial Resource Model

Chapter 5 Creating Home-School Links

Chapter 6 The Project and National and Local Agencies

Chapter 7 Impacts and Outcomes

Chapter 8 Recent Developments and Research

Chapter 9 Conclusions

Chapter 10 Recommendations

Some Organisations, Bodies and Locations mentioned in the Report:

Bord na Gaeilge State agency responsible for the promotion of the Irish language as an everyday means of communication throughout Ireland.

Ceantar na nOileán Area where the Muintearas Project was located, in the Galway Gaeltacht.

Comharchumann na nOileán The Community-owned Cooperative in Ceantar na nOileán responsible for initiating the Muintearas Project.

FÁS The National Employment and Training Agency.

Gaeltacht The Irish speaking regions of Ireland.

Teagasc The National Agricultural Advisory Service, operating under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture and Food.

Raidió na Gaeltachta Dedicated Irish-language radio station based in the Gaeltacht and broadcasting nationally.

Teilifís na Gaeilge Dedicated Irish-language television station with its headquarters in the Gaeltacht and broadcasting nationally.

Údarás na Gaeltachta The Government-supported regional development agency for the Gaeltacht.

FOREWORD

The Muintearas Educational Research Project was jointly funded from the outset by the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, based in the Hague, and Údarás na Gaeltachta, the Government-supported regional development agency for the Gaeltacht.

The Bernard Van Leer Foundation provides financial support and professional guidance to governmental, academic and voluntary bodies operating projects to enable socially and culturally disadvantaged children to benefit fully from educational and social development opportunities. The Foundation provided generous support for this Project from 1981 to 1992; its involvement was the catalyst that attracted the direct involvement of Údarás na Gaeltachta in a substantial educational project for the first time.

The Department of Education has had a strong supportive role throughout the period of the Project. The resource teachers, seconded from and funded by the Department of Education yet working directly under the aegis of the Project, were the central link in the structure which contributed to the development of the alternative model outlined in this report.

The demise in 1984 of Comharchumann na nOileán, the community development cooperative that had an influential role in generating the Muintearas Project and sourcing the initial funding, prompted the Project to undertake a wide range of community education and community development schemes in Ceantar na nOileán. In fact, as is described within the report, the Project developed a high level of expertise in initiating and administering a considerable range of education, employment and vocational training projects at community level. These were funded from a variety of national and EU sources. However, fundamental research and the development of culturally relevant models in the areas of early childhood education disadvantage and under-achievement remained the central focus of the Project.

The alternative model developed through this Project for remedial education in the context of the size of the schools in the Gaeltacht is considered more appropriate and efficient than the conventional approach. It enhances both the role of the class teacher and of parents, and effects an important linkage between them in their joint involvement in the preparation of culturally relevant teaching materials and ultimately in the education of the children.

Although the Muintearas Educational Research Project is essentially an education project, there are lessons to be taken from it that apply to all agencies that deal with the Gaeltacht. The findings of this report underline the special measures that need to be implemented in order that education policy and practice take full cognisance of the linguistic distinctiveness of the Gaeltacht communities.

Education, as one of the basic channels for cultural transmission, plays a fundamental role in the development of self-confident, enterprising and creative individuals and of vibrant communities. It is, therefore, a potentially vital supportive and formative element in the maintenance of culturally distinct and self-sustaining Gaeltacht communities. It can only do this successfully if it is sensitive to the particular needs of the Gaeltacht and reflective of the cultural distinctiveness of Gaeltacht communities.

Education policy in particular has a fundamental role to play. It is essential that education policy should not only take cognisance of the special educational needs of Irish speakers but more particularly that cognisance be taken at regional implementation level of the economic, social and cultural strategies being promoted by other State agencies in the Gaeltacht. The Muintearas Project has done the groundwork for an education structure that can achieve these objectives.

A new education structure allied to the strengthening of existing Gaeltacht-based structures is essential in view of the accelerated rate of language shift that is now taking place in the stronger Gaeltacht communities and the very fragile state of the language in the smaller communities. The appoach to date, however well-intentioned, has lacked intergration and cohesion. The unpalatable fact is that the State apparatus itself is among the major forces contributing to the erosion of the Irish language at community level in the Gaeltacht. It is of the utmost importance that the operational practices of all the regional branches of State agencies be administered in a proactive manner that underpins official State language policy by delivering their services to the Gaeltacht communities through the medium of Irish. Our experience to date leads us to the unavoidable conclusion that the laissez-faire approach of these agencies in the past has been a major contributor to the accelerated erosion of Irish as the community language of the Gaeltacht population. It's present critical state of fragility must be addressed as a matter of urgency by giving a statutory framework to the language rights of Irish speakers.

We are greatly indebted to the current and former members of the Consultative Committee who have given invaluable support and advice towards charting the progress of the Project.

We also wish to express our appreciation and indebtedness to the staff of the Project whose flair, dedication and enthusiasm created an exciting and inspiring work-environment for what has been a truly pioneering and innovative Gaeltacht education research project.

We know that parents, children and teachers throughout the Gaeltacht have benefited from their participation in this Project and we are indebted to them for their continued cooperation.

A special word of gratitude and appreciation is owed to the members of the Evaluation Committee, Dr. Séamus Ó Buachalla, Pádraig Ó Coimín, Seán de Cléir and Pádraic Mac Donncha, who gave generously of their time and professional expertise over a long number of years during the course of the research and in the preparation of this report.

Pádraig Ó hAoláin

Chairman, Consultative Committee

INTRODUCTION

The peripheral regions of Europe, from northern Scandinavia to southern Iberia, share some common physiographical and demographic features and in consequence, manifest some similar infrastructural and socio-economic characteristics. These regions are usually sparsely populated and since many essential services are provided on a basis of demographic concentration, the peripheral regions usually experience lower levels of provision in policy areas such as health, education, communication and transport than those available to their fellow-citizens in urban areas.

Large stretches of the Irish Atlantic coast are typical peripheral regions and within that category the Irish-speaking regions, the Gaeltacht, show most of the common negative features of peripherality. Many of these negative features, however, are accentuated by a linguistic dimension and by the reality that some of the agencies responsible for services to the Gaeltacht do not make adequate policy and practical provision for the reality of language differential.

This study concerns one Gaeltacht district, Ceantar na nOileán in Connemara on the west coast, and the work of the Muintearas Project during the eighties. This Project, funded by Údarás na Gaeltachta, the Bernard Van Leer Foundation and supported by the Department of Education, concentrated on various aspects of education in the community and gradually extended its work to other Gaeltacht regions, north and south. The work of the Project included components of early childhood education, the work of the formal primary school, issues arising from `early leaving' and `drop-out' in the postprimary school, further education and community education. In its later phases the Muintearas Project devoted special attention to the development of remedial programmes and home-school links. In addition to describing the various general dimensions of the Project we also present an evaluation of the alternative approach to remedial education developed during the course of the Project.

This report, in its contents, first outlines the general features of the Project's geographical location and the various components of its programme; it then presents some characteristic educational features and issues encountered and the Project's responses. Among the issues encountered and addressed are the learning difficulties of primary school children; a major section of this report concerns the involvement of the Project in providing for such children. The report presents details of an alternative approach to remedial education and some of the strategies employed in developing home-school links. In its concluding chapters, the report analyses the interaction between the Project and local and national agencies, evaluates its impacts and outcomes and presents concrete policy proposals.

In its general objective, the report seeks to influence national policy in relation to education provision in the Gaeltacht on grounds of equality of opportunity and national language policy. If the survival of the Irish language as a community language is accepted as a major political objective, it follows as a logical correlative that the quality of education available to the children of the Gaeltacht is of primary concern in any such objective.

This report is directed towards the policy makers and those politicians who are seeking measures and mechanisms which epitomise the State's language objectives and ambitions. If the State really wishes to ensure that the Irish language survives as a vernacular language beyond the early decades of the next century, then it must take realistic measures and urgent policy decisions on the critical issues which are identified as major determinants in this report.

Chapter 1

The Gaeltacht

This chapter presents an overview of those features of the Gaeltacht and of Ceantar na nOileán which form a relevant backdrop to the Project. As indicated earlier, the Gaeltacht shares some critical characteristics with the other peripheral regions, especially those socio-economic and demographic features which are generally typical of the rural areas of the western seaboard.

As the maintenance of the national language became an element in the declared policies of successive native governments the survival of Irish-speaking areas as distinctive speech communities was essential for ensuring the quality of Irish as a living language. Apart from this, the maintenance of the language where it was still rooted was important to the morale of the national revival effort. The Gaeltacht was seen as the reservoir from which Irish language learners would draw inspiration and as the supply source of highly competent Irish speakers.

Consequently, since they were first officially designated as the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking areas have been a special focus of state intervention. The Gaeltacht boundaries have been amended from time to time and now account for some 86,000 persons (Fig. 1: The Gaeltacht Areas and Ceantar na nOileán). The districts concerned have been given a greater degree of state aid towards their economic and social development than was provided to other less-favoured rural areas. Until the late 1950s state aid for Gaeltacht development was largely devoted to improving the indigenous economy of small farming and traditional industries. In recent decades the emphasis has been on creating a new industrial base with a greater reliance on attracting overseas investments. In 1998 there were approximately 12,000 people employed, almost 8,000 full-time and 4,000 part-time, in Gaeltacht industries promoted by Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Despite these official efforts there has been a long-term decline in Gaeltacht population numbers. A measure of stability was achieved in the 1970s but even then in-migration of older age groups was being offset by the out-migration of young adults. By the mid eighties return migration had dwindled while our-migration continued, especially of young people with higher education.

1.1 The Irish Language

The position of Irish has also weakened as the vernacular of the Gaeltacht. In particular, levels of Irish usage in crucial domains such as the home and school have fallen sharply. The dynamics of this language shift are complex. As the percentage of native speakers in the population falls, the cohesive social networks through which Irish as a community language is maintained are disrupted. There is a declining probability that fluent speakers will marry partners of similar levels of competence. The chances of Irish-using households being formed are further reduced by the continued out-migration of young adults. In-migration is another anglicising factor. A comparison of first-time entrants to primary schools in certain core Gaeltacht areas between 1970 and 1980 showed a dramatic increase over the decade in the number of children with at least one non-Irish speaking parent. Moreover, this research revealed that, in families where the mother comes from outside the Gaeltacht, the language of two thirds of these families was English.

According to the 1981 census, over 80% of Gaeltacht children of school-going age were reported as Irish speakers whereas only 53% of those of pre-school age were similarly classified. This indicates that the failure or inability of parents to transmit Irish to their children in the home places a greater burden on the school. Gaeltacht teachers feel that such a situation places them in an unsupportive pedagogic environment. Apart from coping with the deficiencies obvious to them within the education system, teachers, more than other public servants perhaps, are struck by the patent inconsistencies in state policy for the Gaeltacht.

Údarás na Gaeltachta has a statutory function to preserve and extend the use of the Irish language but it

has no function in relation to such policy areas as physical planning, education, agricultural development, sea-fisheriesand has only limited powers in the area of tourism. The administrative boundaries of state agencies do not coincide with the geographical territory of the Gaeltacht. As noted over fifteen years ago, but still unchanged, the Gaeltacht 'branches' of central and local government and of regional and semi-state bodies are staffed mostly by English monolinguals; the use of English is usual in both the activities of personnel in the local setting and in the interactions between the local branches and their central administrations.

However, the most distinctive features of the present situation in the Gaeltacht centre around issues of language and the way in which these constitute a context of ambiguity and ambivalence for schools and teachers. At the most general level, there is an official state policy for the maintenance of Irish as the community language of the Gaeltacht. But the declared goals of this policy are contradicted by the anglicising impact of the operational practices followed in the state's own system of public administration. With the exception of Údarás na Gaeltachta and Bord na Gaeilge, The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and The Department of Education, individual state agencies are not obliged to provide their services in ways consistent with the official language maintenance policy.

Overarching these public policy issues is the fact that the linguistic balance of Gaeltacht communities is shifting in favour of English. The many forces in this process are mutually reinforcing. They include the influences of returning migrants and incomers to the Gaeltacht, greater population mobility, new employment contexts, the language used by public servants at work and socially and the pervasive influence of the English-medium mass media.

When these linguistic features of Gaeltacht areas are combined with the more general characteristics of disadvantaged rural areas, it will be appreciated that Gaeltacht schools face exceptional problems in teaching children, and especially in coping with those children who have learning difficulties.

1.2 Ceantar na nOileán

Ceantar na nOileán, the location of the Project, is a collection of small islands, linked physically together and to the mainland about thirty five miles west of Galway. The general characteristics of the Gaeltacht are replicated in Ceantar na nOileán, but the negative circumstances are more pronounced. It has poor land, small-scale farming and fishing, low income and heavy dependence on state income transfers. However, it remains one of the core Gaeltacht areas in that, for census purposes, over 90% of its population report themselves as Irish-speakers.

• Population and Employment

Population numbers have declined steadily in recent decades from 3,300 in 1946 to the current figure of just over 2,000 persons. The main reason for the decrease is out-migration especially among women. For example, a comparison of the female age cohort 10-14 years in 1971 with the female cohort aged 20-24 in 1981 shows a decline of 63%; the corresponding loss among males, at 40%, was not as great. This rate of out-migration is a symptom of the more basic problem of lack of employment and social amenities. In 1981, when the Muintearas Programme began, the unemployment rate in Ceantar na nOileán was 31% compared to 19% in the entire Gaeltacht. In 1983 pupils from the area, who were in second level education at the nearby Comprehensive School in An Cheathrú Rua, were surveyed about the employment status of their brothers and sisters who had left school. The results are as shown in Table 1.

Whereas one quarter of the boys were unemployed and living at home, the girls made a clear choice between working at home (or in a neighbouring area) and leaving the area. Overall, only 37% of these school leavers were living at home and working.

Table 1: The employment and location status of the siblings of pupils from Ceantar na nOileán attending the Ceathrú Rua Comprehensive School, 1983

Source : Ó Cinnéide, M.S. (1983)

• Language

What has already been said about the anomalous pattern in public administration in regard to state language policy in the Gaeltacht applies to Ceantar na nOileán. Local offices of state, semi-state, or state-funded bodies generally use English when interacting with the local community. This mixed linguistic ambience is reinforced by the national mass media, and by television especially. There are relatively few Irish language programmes for children, even on the state national television channel. However the establishment in late 1996 of Teilifís na Gaeilge, constitutes a welcome, strategic support mechanism and a long-overdue basic provision.

When economic circumstances improved in the 1970s many of the emigrants who returned to the area came back with English-speaking families. Children from these families attended local schools which posed difficulties for teachers in coping with their limited abilities in the Irish language.

Besides, some families, who have never left the area, have started to raise their children through English on the understanding that, since many young people leave the area, it will be more beneficial for them to be fluent in English rather than in Irish. Even if they do not leave, they must still transact business with the English-using public and private services in the Gaeltacht. In these circumstances parents are quite happy to leave the task of Irish language transmission to the schools. Teachers are inevitably frustrated in coping with these expectations, given that the support systems available to them are inadequate even for the normal requirements of teaching children whose mother tongue is Irish.

1.3 Cultural Factors and Aspects of Education

Until the provision of 'free' postprimary education and 'free' school transport in 1967, in Ceantar na nOileán, as in many other peripheral areas, postprimary education was a minority experience, dependent upon proximity to a local postprimary school or the ability of parents to pay boarding school fees. The neglect of postprimary education in the Gaeltacht since the foundation of the state has been most remarkable in a state committed to the preservation of the Irish language. A small percentage of Gaeltacht primary pupils from 1928 onwards could obtain admission, by scholarship, to preparatory colleges, secondary boarding schools which were established to prepare students for teacher training colleges; these, however, were closed in 1961. A scheme, to provide twenty three postprimary schools in the Gaeltacht was developed by the de Valera government in 1934 but was abandoned due to church opposition on the grounds of undue state interference. The first four vocational schools in the Gaeltacht were opened in the fifties in Dingle, Co. Kerry, Inverin and Inis Mór, in Co. Galway and Greencastle, in Co. Donegal.

Furthermore, due to the physical isolation of the area, students in Ceantar na nOileán did not consider themselves as forming a natural part of the Ceathrú Rua school catchment area.

Consequently, there had been a tradition of pupils remaining on in the primary school until reaching the legal minimum school-leaving age of fifteen. This tradition had remained, despite the availability of 'free' facilities since 1967, until the establishment of this Project in 1981. The low completion rates of 54% and 33% to Group Certificate and Intermediate Certificate respectively [Table 2] at a period when corresponding national figures stood at over 70%, indicate a pattern of heavy `drop-out' at various stages of second level education. Of those who entered postprimary school during the period 1981-86, over 50% had left full-time education by the end of the second year of the five year course.

Table 2: (a) The destination of the pupils who left Ceantar na nOileán primary schools in the period 1981-86, and (b) their qualification status as of 1989

Source: Project Survey 1989

Parents generally did not involve themselves in school affairs mainly because there was no mechanism for such involvement; they visited the school only to attend a parent/teacher meeting or if summoned to the school because of a problem with a child. Being among the few professional people in a rural community, teachers were accorded high social status, a status, however, which tended to isolate them in the community from the parents of their students.

1.4 Teachers and Schools

There are eight primary schools in Ceantar na nOileán (Fig.2). Five of these were two-teacher schools when the Project started and the other three were three-teacher schools. Even though the schools are located within the boundaries of two parishes there was very little communication between school staffs apart from occasional trade union meetings. Teachers felt that they had no appropriate forum in which to discuss their professional problems. The role of the Departmental Inspectorate was seen by many teachers as more supervisory, than as exercising a professionally supportive function. In the period 1965-76, teacher isolation and attitudes were compounded by the state's policy of amalgamating small rural schools, such as those in Ceantar na nOileán, into larger central units of seven teachers. While the policy was not actually implemented in Ceantar na nOileán, the possibility that it would be applied eventually generated an inertia and a fatalism among teachers.

The mechanism for the funding of education creates a major problem for rural schools. The capitation principle, under which a school's annual income is a linear function of enrolment, places small schools at a disadvantage; the annual capitation grant to small schools is not sufficient to cover essential costs of maintenance, heating and lighting. In Ceantar na nOileán some of the school buildings and playgrounds were in physical disrepair, due to the low level of investment in small two-teacher schools. Such small schools seldom have sufficient annual resources to provide an adequate range of educational aids, learning materials and special materials.

• School Curriculum

The low level of education facilities in schools created difficulties in implementing the integrated, activity-based curriculum introduced in 1971. This `new' curriculum was regarded by some teachers as a centrally devised programme which did not take account of local variations in social and cultural contexts.

In particular, the teachers in Ceantar na nOileán were unhappy because it made no specific provision for the multi-grade classroom so common in small rural schools, where each teacher is teaching more than one grade and usually three. Furthermore, the curriculum did not have regard to the linguistic and educational circumstances in Gaeltacht schools, nor did its associated in-service programme make adequate provision for their teachers. In general the professional preparation for the introduction of this new child-centred curriculum was limited and teachers found difficulties in applying the curriculum in their schools. They were constrained by the lack of educational facilities, small classrooms and the multi-grade situation. As a result some teachers continued to teach according to the canons of the older curriculum.

• Boards of Management

Since 1974, in most cases Boards of Management are responsible for the management of primary schools. Prior to that year, a member of the local clergy was manager ex officio and there were no other participants in the management. Boards are now composed of the manager, principal teacher, teachers' representatives and parents' representatives, the absolute numbers being decided by the size of the school. The patron of the school is usually the bishop of the diocese from whom the Boards of Management derive their authority, though parental rights are constitutionally guaranteed. The chairpersons of Boards are appointed by the patron. The duties of Boards of Management are carried out under specified procedures and extend to recruitment of teachers, designation of the school curriculum and responsibility for school buildings. Even though the Board system has been in operation since the mid-1970s, residual aspects of the older managerial system still survive.

The tradition of power centralisation has proved hard to modify and local communities are not sufficiently aware of the potential conferred on them by the new structure. These new management structures assume an informed and participative community but frequently the relevant knowledge and role skills are absent. The various managerial associations do not, as a rule, involve themselves in developing the expertise of Boards as policy contributors; they tend to be concerned more with broader policy issues. Since their introduction there has been no formal review of the functioning of the Boards of Management.

• Related Child Care Services

The regional Health Boards operate a school medical service, consisting of a team of doctor, nurse, psychologist and dentist who visit the schools and assess the children. Where appropriate, the team recommends further treatment, consultation or service.

• Other Gaeltacht Areas

The other Gaeltacht areas served by the Muintearas Programme following its expansion in the mid 1980s, share many of the characteristics of Ceantar na nOileán (Fig. 1). However, minor variations occur from place to place in natural resources, economic activities, demographic trends, infrastructure, education provision, and language use.

The Camus/Ros Muc area bears a close resemblance to Ceantar na nOileán as does the Carna/Cill Chiaráin district. The topography and settlement patterns in all three areas are quite similar while their population trends over the past three decades are also comparable. As in Ceantar na nOileán, the primary schools in the other areas are mainly two-teacher or three-teacher facilities. All these areas are also located in the core Gaeltacht, where over 90% of the population report themselves as Irish speakers. The Carna/Cill Chiaráin area is somewhat more remote than the other areas but differences on this basis are not significant.

Corr na Móna is located inland in the mountainous region of northwest Connemara. Perhaps this feature accounts for its comparatively low density of population although its population losses over the past three decades have been of the same order as in the coastal areas. However, Corr na Móna is on the outer edge of the Gaeltacht and the proportion of Irish speakers in its population is lower than in the core Gaeltacht areas.

Apart from the communities located around Galway city, the least agrarian-based Gaeltacht is that in Donegal; however the proportion of its Irish speakers has remained comparatively high. The growth of industrial and service employment in Donegal has resulted in some in-migration which poses the same dilemma for the future maintenance of the Irish language as in Ceantar na nOileán. By contrast with Donegal and the other Gaeltachtaí, the Kerry Gaeltacht is based on a relatively strong farming economy; Irish is widely spoken in the more westerly parts of the Dingle peninsula but the language has weakened elsewhere in this Gaeltacht.

As shown in this chapter the different regions of the Gaeltacht share some common gross characteristics in demography, economy, social structure and employment patterns. While the circumstances of all regions are not identical, they present a socio-economic fabric within which similar educational problems are encountered.

Chapter 2

The Project Programme and its Components

2.1 The Origins of the Project

The Muintearas Project arose from two related factors, the basic philosophy of a local cooperative and the widespread perception among its members that official policies and services did not adequately serve the area's needs.

In 1979 the Islands Cooperative, Comharchumann na nOileán, prepared a five-year plan for the development of the area, grounded in a philosophy of self-help. The plan sought to develop community awareness of its own potential and to promote positive attitudes towards cooperative action in improving the social and economic infrastructures. Specifically, the plan identified the development of local natural resources as the basis for generating increased productive employment.

Comharchumann na nOileán, in its discussions of the plan with the community, came to the early realisation that, in the context of the social reality of the area, the achievement of the plan's aims would be impossible without a complementary programme in community education. Accordingly, the cooperative drew up an education programme for which it sought financial aid from the Bernard Van Leer Foundation; in its submission, the Comharchumann described the Community Education Projects as catering for the social development of all the people. Its essential philosophy was stated in the following terms:

'nurturing confidence in all sections of the population to initiate and sustain forms of action, by which the Community Education Project would strive to create more positive and realistic attitudes in both young and adult groups towards the potential of the Community five year Development Plan.'

The responses of the Van Leer Foundation and of Údarás na Gaeltachta were enthusiastically positive in supporting the creation of an education programme as a vital part of a wider socio-economic project. In creating the Community Education Programme, the following specific objectives were established: i) to set up and develop a pre-school programme including a training scheme for mothers, ii) to initiate a curriculum development scheme involving local content and to develop associated learning materials, iii) to devise an education programme for early school leavers involving employment experience, iv) to develop an adult education programme geared towards personal and social development.

Thus, the Education Programme was envisaged as catering for all in the community, from early childhood to adult groups, in a strategy which identified education, both formal and informal, as an essential powerful catalyst in the socio-economic and cultural empowerment of Ceantar na nOileán. This strategy comprised four components, pre-school, primary education, school-work interface and adult education, in each of which work plans were drawn up and implementation strategies devised.

The Pre-School Component sought to increase awareness and confidence among parents concerning their potential in early childhood education and to promote among them a positive attitude towards the formal education process. In particular, it sought to create an awareness among parents of their own centrality in maintaining a truly bilingual community in the Gaeltacht and an appreciation of the long-term social and cultural implications of the current linguistic trends and policies. The intervention plan involved the setting up of pre-school groups, provision of related transport schemes, a home visits scheme and the creation of a Playgroup Centre which would act as a focal point and a training facility.

The Primary School Component, seen as a fundamental component in the socio-cultural development of the community, adopted the following aims: to establish mutually supportive links between the community and its schools, to promote knowledge and appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of the locality and its socio-economic potential, to encourage interaction between the education process and the work of Comharchumann na nOileán and to foster among youth a commitment to local development. The interventions planned in this component included teacher/home visits and parent-teacher meetings, curricular study groups in Language, Mathematics and Environmental Studies to prepare and disseminate relevant learning materials and to generate more active community involvement in improving the physical fabric of the school premises.

The Education/Employment Interface Component was aimed primarily at young people who had not obtained any postprimary qualification or who, had not secured employment on leaving school. This component sought to generate positive attitudes, initiative and optimism, towards the economic and social fabric of the community, to promote work practices conducive to efficiency, industry, commitment and productivity, to develop social skills, personal confidence, decision-making and cooperative skills and to motivate young people towards knowledge and skill acquisitions relevant to local employment. The interventions planned included the formation of a working junior cooperative, skill training programmes and the planning and provision of local 'caring' services.

The Adult Education Component, aiming to form and enable the community to function in a self-reliant mode, adopted the following aims: to extend knowledge and awareness of the forces and factors which influence local community development, to promote the capacity of the community to act cooperatively in its own interests, to create mechanisms to generate community leadership, and to develop an understanding of the causal links between existing socio-cultural problems and the related regional infrastructures. Under this component the following interventions were planned: a local development study conducted by a community group in conjunction with University College, Galway, an adult education group to identify and organise formal and informal provision, the collection of local archival and folklore materials, the organisation of local festivals and the creation of community information systems based on a newsletter, an information centre and local radio programmes.

2.2 Professional Direction and Management of the Project

In the organisational and managerial structures of the Project, the various cooperating agencies, the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Comharchumann na nOileán and the Department of Education were represented as well as nominated individual professional personnel.

The central policy unit of the Project was the Steering Committee which developed general policy and advised on the strategies to be pursued and on which Project staff were represented. The professional direction of the Project was supplied by the Steering Committee members, by teacher influence and inputs and by close liaison with the local inspectorate of the Department of Education. From this direction, liaison and interaction, the main policy ideas and initiatives evolved and were implemented. Ideas, interventions and concepts were also garnered from the Bernard Van Leer research publications, international research projects and conferences and from various similar projects in the UK and Ireland.

The managerial direction of the Project was in the hands of a Director initially and later, after 1982, of a Chief Executive seconded from Údarás na Gaeltachta. Liaison with the Bernard Van Leer Foundation was facilitated by means of visits by Foundation personnel with direct responsibility for the Project. The Project reported to its sponsors by means of policy documents, work plans, budget statements, accounts and evaluation reports.

The staff employed to implement the Project were, in general, recruited from serving teachers, and from local experienced administrative and secretarial personnel. The total numbers employed varied with the phases and specific components; it expanded to twenty when the Project extended its activities geographically to the other Gaeltacht areas.

An important part of the process was the establishment of a number of ad hoc sub-committees to progress specific components of the Project. Other committees were used to develop analogous interventions and initiatives such as local heritage work and environmental projects. In relation to the evaluation process, an Evaluation Committee was established which functioned throughout the terms of the Project. The Project was physically located at the headquarters of Comharchumann na nOileán at Tír an Fhia, on the industrial estate established by Údarás na Gaeltachta. At this location, it was possible to develop excellent support facilities including staff offices, library, workrooms, a computer laboratory and canteen. These were developed utilising support resources from national and European agencies.

At various points in the Project, activities outside the Project's formal programme were designed to interact with national or regional policy makers, to publicise the achievements of the Project or to present its programme and philosophy to potential participant communities. Thus, seminars were conducted for senior Department of Education personnel, and Údarás na Gaeltachta members and officials, videos describing the work were made and disseminated, presentations were made to international conferences and contacts established with similar projects in Scotland, Scandinavia and other countries.

2.3 Later Phases in the Evolution of the Project

While the various units of the programme, outlined above, were maintained as active elements throughout the term of the Project, from 1984 onwards the concept of parent-based Early Childhood Education played a major role in the programme. This change of emphasis reflected the current philosophy of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation which attached a strategic policy importance to the provision and the quality of education facilities for the under-8 age group. Furthermore, for the second phase the Bernard Van Leer Foundation contract envisaged the geographical extension of the programme to other Gaeltacht areas; this was achieved in the second and third phase by establishing programme elements in the other main Gaeltacht areas.

In the latter phases of the Project some innovations in Early Childhood Education, including a home visiting scheme, Ar Leic an Teallaigh (By the Fireside) and an alternative remedial education model, hereafter called the Remedial Resource Model, were developed. The latter scheme, offering a remedial resource model for children with learning difficulties will be described in detail in the following chapters. It is proposed now to offer a brief account of the other elements of the programme in the second and third phases.

• Ar Leic an Teallaigh (By the Fireside)

This scheme was directed towards the parents of pre-school children. It involved a home-visiting scheme in which selected parents, trained by Muintearas, visited those households which had pre-school children. Each home visitor had, on average, 12-15 households to visit once a month. In each visit various themes relating to child-rearing were discussed and advice offered on any issues raised by parents. The main function of the visits was to convince parents of their own important role and potential in the early development of their children and to upgrade parental skills in this regard. The home visits were supplemented by group activities and lectures/seminars on family health, diet and elementary first aid. The scheme was extended from Ceantar na nOileán to other areas of Connemara and to the Dingle peninsula of Co. Kerry (Fig. 1).

The overall objectives of the Project's programmes for pre-school parents and their children during the third phase was to consolidate the programme of early childhood education and create a continuum of parent-based early education provision. The objectives of the home visiting scheme were:

(i) to improve and consolidate the existing scheme and to devise complementary activities to further parental participation,

(ii) to extend parental skills through self-help methods,

(iii) to offer opportunities and occasions for personal and social development in a community context,

(iv) to promote effective links with the primary school schemes,

(v) to familiarise Health Board personnel with the programme and invite their active support and participation.

The essence of the home-visiting programme was the regular visits to participant families by experienced mothers from their own locality. The central purpose of the visit was to stimulate discussion on various aspects of child development and to encourage mothers in a non-directive way to experiment with new approaches to the tasks of child-rearing. Topics which were included in the visits included nutrition, speech/language acquisition, parent/child and other familial relationships, and physical and cognitive development. Training programmes for the visitors were developed by the Project staff and information pamphlets were prepared and published on the various topics. In addition group activities and workshops were organised as elements of the intervention programme.

From surveys and other feedback mechanisms it is clear that participating parents welcomed the scheme and were convinced of the need for such support for families. They welcomed the opportunity to discuss problems and to receive relevant information; there was particular appreciation of the scheme among first-time parents and among those living in more remote areas. Besides its obvious benefits to the individual parents, the scheme played a significant role in addressing the language issue in Gaeltacht families; in particular it offered a mechanism for parents to gain an understanding of language acquisition and of their own roles in language stabilisation.

• Ag Réiteach i gComhair na Scoile (Preparing for School)

To facilitate the transition from home to school and to inform parents, a pre-school induction course for parents, known as Ag Réiteach i gComhair na Scoile, was developed. These were practical courses which concentrated on developing parental knowledge and skills in fostering their childrens' abilities in oral language, maturation, physical abilities and coordination. Arising from these courses workshops were organised in which the teachers of the infants and junior classes discussed the curricular content of the early years and the supplementary roles of parents in achieving the relevant objectives.

• Computers in the School

By means of a pilot scheme, the Project, assisted financially by An Biúró Eorpach um Theangacha Neamhfhorleathana (The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages), introduced personal computers to the schools and to adults of the area. A computer centre was established at the Muintearas headquarters where basic introductory training courses were provided for teachers, pupils, parents, postprimary pupils and unemployed young persons and adults who were interested in acquiring computer skills for business purposes.

At a later stage, advice was provided for schools in acquiring their own computers and a library of software and educational games was set up. By offering computers as prizes in project competitions, the stage was quickly reached whereby all the schools possessed the basic technology.

• Forbairt na hÓige (Youth Development)

From the beginning the Project sought to organise special supplementary programmes for those young people who had left the formal postprimary system at an early stage and for those who had derived no formal qualification or employable skills from their postprimary years. In the Project's first phase a youth officer was employed to plan and implement this component, drawing on the support of training agencies such as FÁS and the County Galway Vocational Education Committee. Later, when the Bernard Van Leer Foundation's emphasis changed to early childhood development, the Project succeeded in sourcing funding through the Department of Education's National Lottery support for disadvantaged young people, and this enabled the Project to continue with this aspect of its work.

These programmes sought not only to provide employable skills for the educationally disadvantaged but also to organise recreational, cultural and social programmes and to seek in particular to identify and develop leadership among the adolescents and youth.

These elements were organised on a local basis in conjunction with parents and were linked to various national and regional youth agencies in whose competitions and festivals they participated.

On an individual basis these youth programmes have been very successful in upgrading basic and technical skills and thereby changing radically the employment prospects of the youth. Furthermore, at community level, the programmes have had a significant impact in various beneficial environmental projects, in a vibrant summer camp project, in amateur dramatics and debating groups and in a palpable elevation of morale and community commitment among the young.

• Mná sa Phobal (Women in the Community)

This programme, which sought to extend the personal, individual and social skills and accomplishments of the women in the area, had social, recreational, empowerment and cohesion dimensions. It offered them opportunities, by means of structured courses and projects, to enhance their personal potentials and to strengthen their collective role as a force for community change.

These courses, introduced in 1990 and organised under the aegis of FÁS (the National Training Agency), typically ran for sixteen weeks over five weekday mornings. They included modules on upgrading employable skills in communications and presentation, community and environment, information technology, health and fitness, current affairs and in work experience. The courses proved extremely popular, were over-subscribed and the first course was extended in duration by three weeks in response to participant demands.

• Oidhreacht (Heritage)

From the outset Muintearas emphasised the importance of the region's cultural and historical heritage as a major resource and community treasure. Working groups were set up to collect and collate heritage materials, to extend knowledge of the heritage and to generate a positive sense of identity and local pride in the community. A heritage centre was set up displaying photographic and artefact heritage materials on the history and culture of the region; in association with this centre a heritage project was organised in the schools which proved very popular. A dramatic presentation was organised based on the life and works of a local poet. As part of this heritage work a very successful question and answer competition was organised based on local history and folklore and the relevant material was published.

• Other Activities

Arising from the work of the Project a local development agency, Fiontar (Enterprise), was established which initiated a number of small-scale development schemes directed at improving local facilities and public amenities. In the early stages the Project organised an Advice and Information Centre, the services of which were availed of widely. The Public Library, an active branch of the County Galway Library housed in the Project headquarters, ranks as a permanent outcome of the Project.

Chapter 3

Children with Reading Difficulties

An Alternative Model

As indicated earlier the demographic and physiographic features of the peripheral areas hold major implications for education provision in these areas. In the Gaeltacht these are accentuated by the presence of issues derived from cultural and linguistic factors.

Most of our rural schools are small two-teacher units where multi-grade teaching is the norm. The absence of any school linkages at county or sub-county level makes it difficult to provide much needed additional services which are usually available in larger schools. Remedial or special education for children with learning difficulties is one such provision which is of critical importance. In the predominantly small schools of the Gaeltacht, the problems associated with special education are exacerbated by the absence of culturally relevant evaluation instruments, initial reading materials in Irish and by the wider educational implications of the changing linguistic balance in Gaeltacht communities.

3.1 The Problem and its Assessment

The effort for a young learner of understanding the written word and of rendering a series of printed symbols meaningful is very demanding. It involves both linguistic, interpretative and perceptual skills. Under-achievement in this basic learning task is encountered as an educational reality world-wide and research has shown that reading difficulties in the first language and weakness in basic mathematics are the principal factors associated with early `drop-out' from school.

Policy in the recent past has favoured making provision for remedial education by means of specialist teachers, sanctioned on a basis which gave priority to larger and mainly urban schools. Such a policy made no provision for the smaller rural schools which form about half of the total of more than 3,000 national schools. As part of the Department of Education's support for the Project a remedial teacher was appointed to Ceantar na nOileán in 1982. This teacher was asked to investigate the potential of remedial teaching in the region's eight small schools and to examine the role of home visits in the process.

Upon her appointment the remedial teacher undertook a survey of the school population to establish the extent of reading difficulties. In conducting this survey the remedial teacher utilised a combination of teacher assessment, consultation with principals and knowledge of family background. In this evaluation it was not possible to use standardised tests of reading in Irish as the only tests available were in English with a content related to an English language culture.

For the middle and senior grades two standardised tests were used, the Spar Reading Test and the Cloze Reading Test - these provided a reasonable indication of the levels of reading ages in the school and the interpretation of the results took cognisance of the fact that they were initially standardised on monolingual English children. The results were cross-checked with the class teacher and the principal teacher and were mainly used for identifying children with particular difficulties rather than for constructing systematic reading age profiles. The survey indicated that from 20% - 25% of the pupils had literacy difficulties, a level significantly higher than expected.

Arising from discussions among the assessment personnel a number of causal factors were identified as bearing on the issue. While there are other considerations operating, a major factor related to the quality of the reading material available to children for whom Irish is their first language. Most of the material available in Irish is produced by commercial publishing houses for non-Gaeltacht children, who learn and read Irish as a second language and who, normally, will have already mastered reading skills in English before they are required to read in Irish. Gaeltacht children, therefore, had to contend with learning materials and textbooks which had no structured pre-reading elements and no graded vocabulary introduction programmes for initial learners of reading. There is no provision either for local dialects, which effectively means that many Gaeltacht children are learning to read in a dialect which is not their vernacular dialect. In many textbooks there is very little recognition of the fact that Gaeltacht areas are mainly rural areas, a cultural reality which should be reflected in the contents of textbooks.

There were no structured phonic programmes in Irish for Gaeltacht primary schools to aid the development of word attack skills similar to those available to initial readers of English. Slow learners in Gaeltacht schools do not have the benefits enjoyed by their English-speaking counterparts who can avail of materials produced by the initial reading sector of the publishing industry.

The importance of scientifically designed, attractive and suitable reading materials in Irish cannot be over-emphasised; their non-availability constitutes a major educational obstacle not only for early learners but for Gaeltacht children generally. As such, it constitutes an important structural inequality.

In extending their children's exposure to the more attractive reading materials in English, many Gaeltacht teachers feel that they contribute to undermining the viability of Irish. Generally speaking, if given a choice, the Gaeltacht child will select English reading materials in preference to reading material in Irish.

Another major factor concerns the professional preparation of teachers. The pre-service training of most teachers did not and still does not include adequate preparation for teaching in Gaeltacht or Irish medium schools and provides little training whatsoever in coping with multi-grade teaching which is the norm in most small Gaeltacht schools. Furthermore, the level of in-service provision since 1971 did not reflect the level of pedagogic innovation required to adjust to the new curriculum. No programme of in-service training was initiated to cater for the specific needs of Gaeltacht or Irish-medium schools.

3.2 Conventional Remedial Teaching

Under present general policy provisions, remedial teachers are available normally to schools of over 250 pupils; exceptions are made to this rule for disadvantaged inner city schools and for schools designated as catering for disadvantaged groups.

The conventional approach of remedial teachers involves withdrawing children in groups of three and four to a separate room to receive specialist tuition. Depending on the case load of the remedial teacher concerned, the children may receive a number of short tuition periods per week. The use of assessment techniques and the teaching of slow learners are largely the responsibility of the remedial teacher and are frequently conducted at a distance from the class teacher and parents.

Conventionally, the availability of remedial teachers tends to effectively relieve class teachers of the responsibility for ensuring the literacy and numeracy skills of weaker children. The literacy and numerical problems of such children are regarded as being primarily the problem of the remedial teacher. This conventional approach does not provide for consultation with parents nor does it recognise their potential and central role in supporting the work of the remedial teacher.

In addressing these issues the Project developed an alternative integrated model suitable for small rural schools, involving the following key elements: (i) the development of teachers' professional skills, (ii) parental participation, (iii) the development of related language learning materials.

3.3 An Alternative: The Remedial Resource Model

For its effective operation, the new model requires a number of practical changes ranging from the attitude and practices of the class teacher to the quality of the support services available to slow learners from professionals and para-professionals.

The new approach must be thoroughly discussed and integrated with the school plan to ensure the support of principal teachers and staff. It also requires a commitment from the Board of Management so that all the school partners can participate fully in its development.

The new model presupposes a number of organisational and conceptual changes; these include the participation of class teachers in remedial teaching and that class teachers take responsibility for their own professional self-development, especially in the acquisition of pedagogic skills and knowledge. The new model further assumes that class teachers recognise and develop a helpful and supporting role for parents and that the remedial teacher be recognised as a major resource which is available to the class teacher, the parent and the child. It also recognises the primacy of prevention over remediation, the desirability of avoiding the stigmatisation of children and the importance of coordinating the support services available to the slow learners from professionals and para-professionals. The model takes as its fundamental starting point that the educational needs of the underachieving Gaeltacht pupils be addressed systematically, as part of a coherent policy.

The Remedial Resource Teacher discharges a number of roles, as supporter of the class teacher in the day-to-day implementation of the programme and as organiser of teacher workshops. The Remedial Resource Teacher is also responsible for the direct tuition of some weak children and is involved in developing and supporting the role of parents in the remediation process and in collaborating with child-care services.

Following an induction period, the class teacher undertakes the main duties of remedial teaching within the classroom and develops the necessary expertise and knowledge through participation in the teacher workshops. The model assumes that participation in the workshops is not an 'optional extra' available to classroom teachers but is an essential element in the resource model.

The tasks which fall to the class teacher include the development of the necessary teaching resources to meet the needs of the particular children in the classroom; they also include the implementation of prevention strategies to ensure that slow learners do not experience the frustrations of failure at reading. The class teacher will also ensure that patience and positive motivation are encountered by the pupils in learning to read.

Another central feature of the Alternative Model concerns parents, involving them directly in both the prevention and remediation aspects of the programme and evolving a practical partnership between parents, teachers and the various child-care services.

The development of formal parental involvement as constructive partners in the education of their children, though a relatively recent development in Irish education, was a central effective ab initio principle in the Project. During the operational period of this Project it was the experience of all the field officers that, generally, parents wished to be supportive and involved in their children's education.

The Remedial Resource Teaching Programme enabled parents to influence their children's development, especially in attitude formation and skill acquisition; it enabled them to foster their childrens' abilities in oral language along with movement and coordination and to interact with the school and with other professionals, thus enhancing the slow learner's ability to benefit from the available services.

During the Project's work in the schools the Department of Education and the local Primary Inspectorate provided sustained support for the operation of the programme. This was important in ensuring the participation of all the parties involved and in integrating the work with the school plan.

Another important element in the resource model is the availability of comprehensive secretarial back-up for the teachers and parents. If workshop material is to be translated into active curricular material it is essential that normal secretarial services are available.

In essence, the new model is designed to meet the needs of rural and particularly of Gaeltacht schools. The programme's basic philosophy is grounded in a central strategy of self-help designed to give ownership and management of the programme to the local relevant participants. Skill and knowledge development are central to its effectiveness and also a major outcome of the practical partnership involved amongst the professionals and para-professionals participating in the scheme. The scheme also endeavours to avoid the stigmatisation of children as underachievers and tries to counter the negative stereotyping in regard to presumed causes of learning difficulties.

Most importantly for providers of educational resources the scheme is cost effective in so far as its main element involves the unleashing of local, personal human initiative and the coordination of existing resources and services by concerned partners.

Chapter 4

The Evolution of the Remedial Resource Model

4.1 Initial Steps

This chapter outlines the evolution and development of the Remedial Resource programme, a process which involved dialogue, interaction, reflection and analysis among the key participants. Emphasis was also placed on the feedback from the Project staff to the Executive and programme Committees.

In March 1983 the remedial teacher commenced work in three of the eight schools in Ceantar na nOileán. These schools were chosen because the Muintearas Project had already organised playgroups in the school areas. Children who were assessed as slow learners were grouped in small numbers and were withdrawn to receive remedial instruction twice a week for a three-quarter hour period. Remedial instruction was provided in Irish reading, English reading and mathematics and the teaching itself was organised in vacant classrooms available in the schools. With the exception of home visits the remedial scheme enacted was very similar to the traditional remedial method.

A significant factor in the change from the conventional method was the adoption of a fourth school in the area into the programme in January 1984. Due to the absence of a vacant classroom in the school the remedial teacher worked in the classroom with the class teacher. In this fourth school the grouped children were left in their own classroom setting and the class teacher could observe the work of the remedial teacher, an arrangement which allowed the class teacher to acquire a better understanding of the remedial programme.

A healthy partnership was soon established between the remedial teacher and the class teacher and the merits of this partnership were elaborated on at teacher meetings. Furthermore due to the close cooperation being developed within the remedial programme generally, a better understanding emerged in the three other schools of the role of the remedial teacher and the resources which such a teacher utilised.

The materials being used by the remedial teacher generated considerable interest particularly among junior class teachers. Over a period, it was noticed by the class teachers that the quality of the materials used and the pacing of the teaching programme were critical factors in the children's progress. Gradually, the class teachers became more and more central to the programme. Subsequently, after a year, a request came from another four schools in the Project area that they be included in the remedial programme.

In order to facilitate these four schools the junior standard teachers in the initial four schools were required to undertake responsibility for the remedial groups in their own classrooms, supported by the Remedial Resource Teacher and remedial workshops.

4.2 School Related Activities

• Teacher Workshops

Workshops were organised in which groups of teachers from six to eight schools developed learning materials especially designed for slow learners and also acquired related instructional skills.

It must be remembered that no such materials were previously available in any structured form for slow learners in Gaeltacht schools. The materials created were pilot-tested in the classrooms to evaluate their suitability as teaching materials and were amended or altered in the light of this evaluation.

The remedial workshops, which met fortnightly, facilitated the development of trust between the partners and an acceptance that alternative approaches, if explored creatively, could sometimes be more successful than the traditional model. Through the workshops, the sharing of problems, the development of trust, the creation of materials and the sharing of skills and experience were promoted together with the methodical planning of the relevant classroom work required.

The resource teachers were present at the workshops as convenors or facilitators; their presence gave the groups a strand of continuity and their support was always available on a practical level through their presence in the schools or at the Project Centre.

The process within the workshops was non-directive as the facilitators had discovered that participant teachers were at different levels of understanding of the curriculum; the workshops were convened and conducted on a model which was sensitive to teachers' classroom needs.

As indicated previously there are no standardised tests available suited to Gaeltacht schools and very little other pedagogical material. To make good this deficiency teachers studied the infant curriculum, pre-reading and writing activities and also discussed 'reading readiness'.

In their discussions and experiences in the workshops teachers became aware of the need to match learning materials to pupil abilities; they also realised that they needed more in-service training in order to meet the challenges of the new curriculum. Consequently, in producing materials to serve their own needs in the remedial programme, teachers considerably enhanced their professional skills and developed a new approach to classroom work generally. The workshops, which were predominantly practical in nature, ensured that teachers developed a stock of teaching resources and instructional strategies to be used in planned classroom activities.

4.3 Networking in the Development of the Programme

It is now accepted among the resource teachers and Project staff that the ultimate success of the resource programme depended on its introduction to local teachers through the medium of the workshop networking system, a concept which evolved as the Remedial Resource Model was being developed.

The Project staff are of the opinion that in changing the existing concept of remedial teaching, the initial sessions of the workshops were crucial in demystifying the work and developing practical skills among the teacher body. Furthermore, the networking aspect of workshops had developed a sense of collective professional responsibility amongst teachers.

The teacher workshops were first initiated to support the development of the Remedial Resource Programme in the Ceantar na nOileán area. At a later stage teachers from the Carna/Cill Chiaráin area heard about the workshops and asked the Project to consider organising them in their own area. In response to the teachers' request the Project staff established workshops in the Carna/Cill Chiaráin area. Later, through the same process, workshops were later established in the Corr na Móna area. It may prove useful at this point to describe the network mechanism in more detail.

The perceptions, skills and knowledge derived from the workshops are presented to the new group by a teacher who has already participated successfully in a workshop. The teacher will invariably become a facilitator for the new group and will act as such until the new group can function independently. The materials produced at workshops must have an immediate classroom application. The workshops are action-based and there are no assumptions made about levels of teacher skills or levels of pedagogic understanding. A code of mutual understanding and practice is quickly established and an environment created where teachers do not feel threatened in outlining difficulties or problems that they may have in their classroom. Teachers know and accept that an extra effort will be required during the initial phase of workshops. Their endeavours are quickly rewarded by suitable materials being available to the teachers for their problem pupils particularly, to the benefit of both teacher confidence and pupil activities. By 1992 over 80 teachers from various Gaeltacht areas had participated in the workshops and the programme's success was underlined by teachers' willingness to participate and to introduce the workshops to new areas.

Overall, the impact of workshops, as a vehicle for developing knowledge and skills among teachers, is impressive. Admittedly, some teachers did not participate in the workshops set up in their areas for a number of reasons ranging from an inability to meet the time demand to a reluctance to participate in extra work. The level of teacher participation rose, however, when workshops received formal recognition as in-service work from the Department of Education under the normal in-service conditions.

4.4 Dissemination and Geographical Expansion

Information on the benefit of the workshops for teachers quickly spread to other areas through a 'networking' process.

In this context 'networking' is the process whereby the resource teacher or other participants in an existing workshop make contact with teachers in an adjoining area with a view to disseminating the basic idea and promoting a demand among these teachers for workshops in their own locality. In this manner the workshops spread rapidly in Connemara; in doing so they indicated teachers' willingness to participate in their own in-service training when such opportunities were available.

As one of the Remedial Resource Teachers recruited to the programme in Ceantar na nOileán came originally from Carna/Cill Chiaráin, the teachers in that area heard of the Project and were anxious to participate. Workshops were set up in Cill Chiaráin National School at which all the junior teachers in the parish attended. These workshops operated in the late evening once a fortnight and attracted large attendance.

It is important to note the change which was occurring in the role of the Remedial Resource Teacher at this stage; the traditional remedial model was being changed gradually to a resource model. The appointment of the second resource teacher in Carna/Cill Chiaráin by the Department facilitated the further extension of the network model to the North Connemara Gaeltacht area of Dúiche Sheoighe.

In the participating schools Remedial Resource Teaching formed a definite component of the school plan and workshop materials became central to the teaching activities rather than being peripheral or viewed as additional work.

The classroom teacher undertook responsibility for assessing and grouping pupils and for matching the classroom activities with the needs of slow learners; consequently over a period of years the need for personal tuition by the Remedial Resource Teacher diminished significantly. This allowed the Remedial Resource Teacher to move to other schools or to concentrate on other areas requiring attention.

4.5 Home-School Links

Home Visits

The involvement of parents in early education was a fundamental part of the Bernard Van Leer's Foundation philosophy and it consequently became an essential element in the Project programme. Home-school links were developed as part of the strategy of systematically enhancing the skills of parents and enabling them to motivate the slow learner's appetite for learning. The elements of this strategy included home visits by both resource and classroom teachers, designed to give parents 'home ground advantage' and also to allow for a full discussion, in privacy, of the particular problems as seen by the parents. For various reasons, not all classroom teachers participated in this exercise but those who did found home visits professionally beneficial and informative.

The Project's staff felt that parental interaction with school and other professionals played a significant role in enhancing the slow learner's ability to benefit from the services available to them. It increased the childrens' feelings of security in coping with professional strangers and developed their sense of importance by being central to the combined efforts of home and school. These home visits will be discussed at a later stage in this report.

• Ag Réiteach i gComhair na Scoile (Preparing for School)

Courses for parents of pre-school children were also provided and a pre-school package or kit was developed by the Project staff in conjunction with parents and teachers to facilitate the transition from home to school. After an initial induction period programmes were implemented by infant teachers to ensure that the activities conducted in the home were compatible with the work to be done at school.

These courses, organised in workshop format, were predominantly practical in nature and concentrated on developing parental skills in fostering their childrens' abilities in oral language, movement and coordination. It became apparent at these workshops that there was little knowledge among parents of the school curriculum, even though it had been in operation since 1971.

• Parents' Workshops

Parent workshops resulted from parental participation in the pre-school course Ag Réiteach i gComhair na Scoile. They were organised in direct response to parental requests for a sequel to the pre-school course. The workshops were conducted by teachers and were geared towards parents whose children were in junior and senior infant classes. They were entirely practical, supplying parents with helpful hints and examples of the actual classroom work. In the workshops parents created a variety of materials which they then used at home with their children. Most were unfamiliar with the new curriculum and its philosophy, since their own schooling had occurred prior to 1971.

4.6 Collaboration with Childcare Services

One of the major criteria for the successful operation of a resource teaching programme is that it should utilise all the available resources and support services to benefit the individual child. Childcare services provided by the Health Boards form a very important component of these resources. One of the primary duties of the Remedial Resource Teacher is to seek to ensure the availability and utilisation of such services so that the children will be the beneficiaries.

In this context the resource teachers developed professional contact with the paramedical and medical services and through these interventions enhanced the quality of those services to individual homes and children. This was particularly important where the English language was an actual barrier in the interaction between the providers of these services and the parents or children, a situation which frequently arose.

• Materials Produced in Workshops

Teacher support materials are of the utmost importance in successful teaching. Ceantar na nOileán teachers, having identified the severe lack of suitable teaching materials available for Gaeltacht schools, set about rectifying this in the workshops. Among the more important outputs from the workshops are a structured phonic programme for the Irish language, a pre-reading and initial reading scheme (collectively known as Bundailín), additional reading materials for senior classes and a practical pre-school course developed for parents. An itemised list of these materials is provided in the Appendix. It is worth noting that the initial reading scheme, as developed by the workshop, contains a far lower new word frequency per page than the sanctioned official reading scheme.

In the Muintearas initial reading scheme repetition of new words is of paramount importance and both the type of language used and the 'difficulty level' of words are such that children are gradually coaxed into reading. Thus learners are encouraged by shorter and more structured learning steps than those encountered in some of the approved official textbooks.

As the Muintearas books were developed locally by teachers and children they reflect the cultural interests and utilise the Gaeltacht idiom; in other words their content and dialect are relevant to the everyday life of Gaeltacht children. In contrast, the reading textbooks produced by publishers are directed at 'average' Irish children, predominantly located in urban centres which are very much removed from the linguistic reality of the Gaeltacht. As an integral part of the development of the reading materials, successive drafts were used in the classrooms and teachers and children contributed to refining the various drafts. These books were subsequently used in all the junior classes of participating schools and teacher comments indicated that they were much more suitable than the standard alternatives.

The materials produced in the workshops have passed through many stages of development; they have been refined repeatedly and evaluated systematically in the schools and used by a wide range of children. The progress made in this area is such that the creation of a local centre responsible for publishing the materials is being examined.

During a two year period the role of the remedial teacher changed from being primarily responsible for the tuition of slow learners to that of a resource person supporting the classroom teacher in diagnosing weak children, planning and creating resource materials suitable for remediation and helping the teacher generally to match the programme to a particular child's needs. To a considerable degree, planning and consultation, practical work in the teacher workshop and parental interaction replaced the initial tuition role.

The change from the traditional remedial role occurred over a considerable period of time and a number of factors contributed to its adoption by the teachers. Notwithstanding the additional teaching demands placed on them teachers were flexible and willing to try alternative models. As the success of the programme became more evident in developing the competence of children, acceptance of the programme by the teachers was accompanied by increased job satisfaction on their part. Moreover, the local Inspectorate was constant in its support of the new model.

Chapter 5

Creating Home-School Links

From the outset the involvement of parents and contacts with the home were regarded as important elements of the Muintearas programme. From theoretical and pragmatic considerations the education programmes sought in particular to forge effective links between the school and the homes. As the Remedial Resource Programme evolved the experience of the participating staff confirmed them in their conviction of the central role of home visits as an effective support for the slow learners and their parents.

The target group for the visits were the parents of the children who had been identified and were participating in the special programme being conducted in the schools. It had been reported that previous attempts by teachers to establish contacts with parents by encouraging them to visit the school had not been very successful; the low level of parental response had fostered the impression among teachers that the parents in question lacked interest in the progress of their children.

The specific aims of the home visits were to make contact with the parents of slow learners, to secure their support for and involvement in the Remedial Resource Programme and to encourage the local teachers to undertake the home visits themselves in due course in order to get a better understanding of the child's home environment.

5.1 Initial Attitudes

The initial attitudes of the local teachers to the proposed home visits were varied. Some were afraid that the resource programme already in progress in the schools, which they valued, might be jeopardised by the anticipated reactions to the home visits. They were of the opinion that the home visits, in the context of a small rural community, would only serve to draw more attention to the children who had already been identified in school as slow learners. They feared that parents might withdraw their children from the school programme. Other teachers were apprehensive about the home visiting programme and found it difficult to envisage themselves visiting the homes of their pupils. At the outset their reactions were centred on the possible social pressures on parents which the teacher's visit could produce or on their own belief that such home visits were not part of their role. Although the majority held these restraining viewpoints to some extent, the others were supportive of the scheme's general philosophy and were interested in the outcomes of the home visit programme. Such home-school contacts, as this programme sought to initiate, are now central to the national policy advocated by the Department of Education and by representative managerial and teacher groups.

5.2 Procedure and Process of the Home Visit

The first term of the programme was spent within the schools assessing and identifying the target children to whose homes visits would begin in the second term. The procedure was launched by giving each participant child a note indicating that the Remedial Resource Teacher intended calling upon the parent on a stated date and asking if the parents were willing to receive the visit. It is of some significance that there was no parental refusal. The timing of the visits was usually dependent on the family's daily schedule and on the availability of the parents. Most visits were organised during school hours but where parents were employed outside the home the visits were conducted later. The evening visits were judged to be more beneficial, possibly because both parents were usually present and because the timing tended to change the occasion into a social and longer visit.

From the beginning the initial parental attitudes and the manner in which they were expressed were most interesting. In general, parents were appreciative of the concern for their children which the visits indicated; they welcomed the scheme, were very frank and open in discussion and showed none of the expected resentment or resistance to the home visits.

Some parents were initially inclined to accept their child's slower rate of progress as inevitable, indicating, perhaps, that their expectations were conditioned or coloured by their own school experiences. However, such negative attitudes were usually quickly dispelled and their early resigned helplessness was altered by increasing school contact.

In welcoming the constructive efforts being made in the resource programme to assist their children, parents were both hopeful and realistic; their expectations enshrined the hope that, in the context of probable emigration, their children would acquire literacy skills, preferably in English. For many parents emigration was seen as inevitable for their children and their views on language policy and the education of their children were coloured largely by that reality. In three of the eight schools in Ceantar na nOileán all the parents of the children in the resource programme were visited by January 1984.

This first round of visits was concerned mainly with establishing contact and with giving information to the parents on the resource programme. The parents were also informed on their child's progress and on the precise programme planned by the Remedial Resource Teacher. Parents were also encouraged and urged to cooperate with the programme by showing an active interest in what their child was doing in school and by helping with aspects of school work.

5.3 Subsequent Visits

Where a child was absent from school on the days of the Remedial Resource Teacher's visits or in the event of inadequate progress, extra visits to the home were arranged. The second visit, in such cases, was concerned with discussing the child's progress with the parents; where the school progress continued to be a cause for concern a third visit was undertaken. This visit was usually concerned with seeking relevant causes and identifying support services such as those of speech therapists or child psychologists. These later steps were undertaken only after full consultation with parents.

From assessment of the Remedial Resource Teacher's records of the home visits some valuable generalised insights were obtained:

(i) parents quickly realised that the teacher's aim was not to criticise but to help and to encourage their child and to involve themselves in that process,

(ii) the parental responses followed an identifiable pattern from early self-criticism, through reflection on their own educational experience, to a realisation of their own potential and an enthusiasm for their own involvement in the programme,

(iii) by the second or third visits the exercise had usually identified the contributory factors to the child's problems and it was possible to make a practical remedial proposal and if necessary to,

(iv) the discussions with the parents were not concerned solely with the inadequacies in the child's progress, but frequently highlighted some positive personality and behavioural traits which served to boost the child's confidence.

5.4 Impacts on Parents

As the home visits progressed the parents gained a deeper insight into the issues surrounding their child's education, they developed some awareness of their own potential in the process and were motivated to participate more in what they increasingly perceived as a major element of their parental role.

Prior to the introduction of the home visits the professional staff of the local health authority had varying success in persuading parents to avail of the services of speech therapists or of psychologists.

Home visits revealed that, in some cases, parents did not fully understand what these services involved, a situation which was aggravated by the fact that some of the Health Board personnel were not competent to provide an adequate service in Irish. It was natural that parents did not wish to be involved in a network service which they did not fully understand.

Through the mediation of the home visits and the Remedial Resource Programme in the schools, the Health Board professionals became more involved in providing necessary ancillary services. In this context, the psychologists, social workers and speech therapists contributed significantly to the Project and the parents became aware of the other agencies which were at their disposal in the interests of their children.

5.5 Teachers and the Home Visits

In general, local teachers were satisfied that the home visits were successful, worthwhile and beneficial. One of the major consequences was a marked improvement in school attendance among chronic non-attenders. The insights and perceptions which the Remedial Resource Teacher gained by the visits helped significantly in generating a wider context for the class teacher in which to understand pupil classroom performance. Frequently these insights helped to clarify behavioural problems which had previously defied analysis.

Those teachers, mainly of the junior classes, who decided to undertake home visits, did so during school hours; in such circumstances the Remedial Resource Teacher substituted for the duration of the visit. Prior to such a visit the class teacher and the Remedial Resource Teacher discussed the individual case and identified the appropriate visit structure. Those class teachers who did undertake such visits found them valuable and professionally rewarding.

Conclusions

Home visits remain an essential part of the Remedial Resource Programme conducted in the schools. Some class teachers, however, did not accept home visits as part of their role and their reservation was strongest where, in extreme cases, the services of a psychologist or social worker was required. In general, home visits were seen by the Remedial Resource Teachers as performing a valuable service in lessening home-school 'distance' and modifying some misconceptions. Their principal value is seen as personalising the education process and involving the parents in a process which is primarily theirs under the Constitution.

Chapter 6

The Project and National and Local Agencies

The education system in the Gaeltacht, comprising mostly small primary and postprimary schools, involves many different local and national agencies; these include the state, the parents, school managers and teachers. As with any policy sphere there is a need for these various agencies to work coherently so as to ensure the adequacy, efficiency and equity of the education provision. The need for such cohesion has been emphasised by the experience of the Project.

In establishing the various Project components the collaboration of local and national agencies was essential to guarantee acceptability and efficient implementation. It has also been the general experience of the Project that such cooperation and collaboration was readily available.

Education provision in the Gaeltacht, in common with that in other sparsely populated areas, is in danger of suffering from a 'peripherality syndrome' whereby levels of facilities and quality of provision are inversely proportionate to distance from the centre. In a system which is unduly centralised, however, the individual local school is at a distinct disadvantage. Moreover, where funding is on a capitation basis, small Gaeltacht schools suffer an added disadvantage. Given the national significance of the Irish language, Gaeltacht conservation and development policies and the critical importance of Gaeltacht education in these policy issues, policy measures need to be stated unambiguously and implemented coherently. The issues specific to Gaeltacht education and the implications deriving from bilingual instructional strategies have never been addressed systematically, especially those relating to language policy, learning materials, slow learners and teacher in-service education.

Though there are various agencies and bodies, official and voluntary, which have some responsibility for state services in the Gaeltacht, there is no single agency at regional or national level which exercises effective coordination in policy implementation. Education in the Gaeltacht suffers from a similar lack of coordination and policy cohesion.

Those various agencies which have an involvement in Gaeltacht education and with which the Project interacted include the Department of Education, school boards of management, managerial bodies, teacher unions and regional health boards.

6.1 The Department of Education

The Department of Education, as the major national policy and principal school funding agency, was closely associated with the Project from the beginning. The local Inspectorate participated in the management of the Project and were active members of the various committees. Senior officials of the Department expressed a strong interest in the Project and in its potential for identifying appropriate Gaeltacht policy strategies. In this context these senior officials attended project seminars and invited project staff to make presentations of project findings to Departmental conferences and meetings. Project staff participated as tutors and lecturers in various in-service courses organised by the Department of Education and in this manner the Project and its approach became widely known among teachers in regions outside its immediate area.

The Department made a significant contribution to the Project in the manner in which it sanctioned and allocated Remedial Resource Teachers and in the research strategy which it suggested. The Remedial Resource Programme was made possible by the Department's willingness to sanction the appointment of Remedial Resource Teachers, initially on an ex quota basis. Such teachers were appointed to a particular Project area, serving a number of schools, and were guided by the Project management and the local Inspector. During the pilot stage of the model's development the local Inspector acted as the Remedial Resource Teacher's manager. The model evolved by the Project is fully consistent with the formal policy document, Guidelines on Remedial Education, issued by the Department of Education.

6.2 School Boards of Management

Prior to the introduction of elected Boards of Management for National Schools the managerial function had been for a century vested in the local clergy ex officio. Since 1974 the Board of Management in each school is composed of elected parents, nominated teachers and nominated church representatives. While the representation ratio remains constant the size of the committee varies according to the size of the school.

Normally the Board Chairman is a local clergyman nominated by the bishop; the Chairman acts as correspondent with the Department of Education, conducts the school finances and chairs the committee which selects and appoints teachers. In the early stages of the Project the local Board of Management chairmen were members of the Steering Committee. This representation was assumed to reflect and promote the close involvement of the Boards of Management of the participating schools in this Project.

• Managerial Bodies

In projects such as the Muintearas Project which seeks to interact with and influence a network of schools, it is essential to secure the cooperation of all the interested bodies and to ensure that the key interest groups are fully informed on and supportive of the philosophy and programme of the Project. In the original Project area alone the number of managerial bodies representing those involved in the primary and postprimary schools exceeded ten, differentiated by gender, type of school, education level and diocese. Given the multiplicity of bodies any exercise in disseminating information and securing corporate support would be achieved more readily if there existed an umbrella group representative of all such managerial bodies with an interest in Gaeltacht education.

6.3 Teachers Unions

While there are three main unions representing teachers at first and second levels the work of the Project, in general and specifically in regard to the Remedial Resource Programme, entailed interaction with teachers in national schools who are corporately represented by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO). Though most of the contact with the INTO was, initially, on an informal basis the organisation was fully supportive of the Project's aims and programme. More recently this contact has been formalised through the organisation's regional officers.

6.4 Regional Health Boards

The Western Health Board, which has responsibility for school medical and paramedical services in the western counties, two of which have substantial Gaeltacht communities, provides the services of a clinical psychologist, speech therapist and social worker from its base in Galway.

Through the Project programme and especially through the home visits, the staff came in contact with the Western Health Board personnel serving the area. While the area personnel were generally most cooperative, it was clear to Project staff that the Board had no language policy in relation to delivery of services to Irish-speaking children and Gaeltacht communities. Nevertheless local cooperation with the Board's social workers enabled the Project to build linkages between homes, the schools and the social workers.

The experiences of the Project confirm Muintearas in its conviction that Health Boards need to formulate and implement an effective policy of educational health services sensitive to the specific needs of the Gaeltacht.

Chapter 7

Impacts and Outcomes

In this chapter we describe and assess the impacts of the Project and the outcomes deriving from its various components; in doing so, we distinguish between the Remedial Resource Model and the other components of the Project's programme. We describe, in turn, the outcomes of the Resource Model and assess its transfer to other areas and its impact upon provision for children with learning difficulties. We then turn to the impact of the Project in general in relation to teachers, parents, curricular and language policy, school texts, school buildings and the Department of Education. We also identify some outcomes of the Project which were less than successful. In conclusion we draw attention to the critical need for a more coherent approach to policy and provision in Gaeltacht education.

7.1 The Remedial Resource Model and its Impact

The Remedial Resource Model, developed in the schools of Ceantar na nOileán, was transferred to other Gaeltacht areas in Connemara, Donegal and Kerry. In its philosophy and procedures, as already noted, it is quite close to the policy document Guidelines on Remedial Education, (1987), published by the Department of Education. It is our opinion that, the implementation of the Remedial Resource Model in Gaeltacht schools offers an effective strategy in the dissemination of official policy.

Compared to the traditional approach, the Remedial Resource Model is characterised as follows:

(i) it is an integrated approach dedicated to the improvement of the quality of education available in Gaeltacht schools,

(ii) it is deemed to be more efficient and more appropriate to the needs of sparsely populated areas,

(iii) as a preventative model it reduces the incidence of low achievement over time,

(iv) it promotes contact, dialogue and consultation between schools, parents, teachers and other agencies,

(v) it offers a vehicle for creating professional contact among teachers on a network basis,

(vi) the teacher workshops of the Model provide an effective mechanism for school-based in-service education,

(vii) it is flexible in its application and adjustable to varying situations.

7.2 Children with Learning Difficulties

As in other areas, one finds in the schools of the Gaeltacht different levels of ability and achievement among pupils, and one also finds pupils with special needs. The pupils with the special needs include slow learners and underachievers as well as those with varying degrees of physical, sensory or emotional impairment. While in most urban areas and cities such children avail of specialist professional attention without leaving home, such a level of specialist professional attention is not readily available to Gaeltacht children.

The Remedial Resource Programme helped in a significant way to improve the quality of service available to such pupils by identifying their special needs and by facilitating and coordinating access to the services of the Health Board. It also facilitated the training of class teachers to evaluate and assess their pupils and helped them to design a suitable learning programme for those with difficulties. The Remedial Resource Model also required teachers to adopt an enhanced self-concept of their professional role.

During these classroom assessment and evaluation programmes, it became obvious that the provision of such basic services for Gaeltacht children is seriously undermined by the absence of standardised tests in the Irish language. In the absence of such culturally relevant tests, it is virtually impossible to make reliable and valid assessments. However, using the available English tests, and applying the Remedial Resource Programme, it was possible, in consultation with parents and class teachers, to mount an effective service for those pupils with learning difficulties. The overall impact of the programme may be gauged from Table 3, which shows a marked decrease in the numbers of underachievers encountered in the schools of two areas where the programme was implemented. In the five years 1987-91, while the total numbers of pupils in these two areas fell by 5% and 4% respectively, the numbers of pupils who were identified as having learning difficulties fell by 36% and 33%.

Table 3: The overall impact of the Remedial Resource Programme in the schools of two areas in the period 1987-91

Source : Project Survey 1991

7.3 Teachers

The Project in general and the Remedial Resource Model in particular exercised a detectable impact on teachers, especially in generating confidence in dealing with learning difficulties, in expanding awareness of the demands of the curriculum, in extending understanding of how to localise curricular content and in meeting curricular objectives within the constraints of a two-teacher school. Furthermore, the Project alerted teachers to the importance of creating suitable strategies for the detection and prevention of learning difficulties at the early stage.

Through the workshops and the curricular groups, teachers acquired a clearer understanding of how to cope with the pedagogical realities of small rural schools by organising and providing instruction and learning strategies for pupils of different grades simultaneously. The teacher workshops were also very beneficial in developing a wide range of new skills among teachers in the design and creation of classroom learning materials and instructional aids.

The various forms of teacher collaborative action promoted by the Project, including the curriculum groups, the workshops and the networking, collectively form a most effective model of school-based in-service education and professional development for teachers. The workshops have been recognised and accorded official sanction by the Department of Education as forms of in-service education.

7.4 Parents

The impact of the Project and of the Remedial Resource Model on parents has been observable especially in their transition from an early pessimism regarding their childrens' learning problems to a later more realistic viewpoint. The Home Visiting Programme (Ar Leic an Teallaigh) and the Pre-School Entry Programme offered the parents valuable mechanisms for involvement and cooperation with teachers.

The parents also have gained a deeper insight into the supportive roles they can play in the education system. Their growing awareness of the importance of postprimary education can be observed in the recent higher transfer rates and in higher completion rates to junior cycle.

This growing commitment by parents is increasingly evident in their involvement in various leisure and cultural school activities such as An Tionscadal Curaclaim (School Project), Lá na nÓg (Community Youth Festival) and Na Campaí Samhraidh (Annual Youth Summer Camps).

7.5 Curricular Policy and Materials

Teachers in rural Gaeltacht schools in implementing the national primary curriculum, introduced in 1971, encounter many structural difficulties. Initial and in-service programmes of teacher education tend to assume that the child-centred curriculum is destined to be implemented in a typical school composed of one-grade classrooms. In many Gaeltacht schools, as in many rural schools, inadequate levels of resources, multi-grade instruction and unsuitable school premises and furniture make the ideal curricular environment difficult to attain. These contributory negative factors are directly related to the capitation scheme whereby schools are funded on a basis of school enrolment.

While the principle of curricular localisation is encouraged the nature of published curricular materials and national texts constitutes a strong convergent force towards centralised and undifferentiated curricular content. Consequently, even by 1993, it was not possible to obtain a complete and coherent set of Irish-medium basic texts and supplementary materials suited to the particular cultural and educational needs of Gaeltacht schools. This is primarily due to the absence of a clearly stated policy and related operational measures for education in the Gaeltacht. In this context there is a pronounced reluctance among publishers to enter a limited uneconomic market.

One of the significant impacts of the Project was to address this issue on a pilot scale and to undertake a pioneering effort to meet the publishing needs of the schools of the Project. It has produced a series of readers, a phonic scheme, a pre-school series and some source books. This venture has demonstrated the scale of the existing need and has explored a potential mechanism by which the need can be met.

7.6 In-Service Education

One of the valuable indirect benefits of the programme was the introduction of school-based in-service education in the form of workshops and its geographical extension by means of teacher networks. This is a development which is in line with current European practice, and with teacher preference, as indicated in a Project survey. Teachers believe that the workshops are particularly effective in identifying and examining local educational needs and in devising solution strategies. The workshops have also succeeded in extending the professional horizons of teachers and in adding their voices to those seeking more professional support services. The workshop experience has in two areas, Leitir Caladh and Aird Mhóir, brought parents and teachers together to establish teacher/parent resource centres.

7.7 Language

In general, many aspects of the Project's work encountered the reality of the language issue in the Gaeltacht. Both inside the school system and in the community the issue is ever present. Confusion and ambiguity in official policy and an official reluctance at many levels to confront the empirical reality, place an undue burden on parents and teachers.

In its educational and community work the Project has been instrumental in highlighting the importance of policy clarification, especially in regard to school language issues. The Remedial Resource Programme was successful, by means of the Pre-Entry Programme, in offering parents an insight into this complex problem and an awareness of their own potential as vernacular transmitters working in cooperation with the schools. The work of the Project has generated a conviction on the urgent need for the formulation by the Department of Education of a comprehensive language policy on Gaeltacht education. Such a policy should be faithful to the linguistic reality and should seek unambiguously to give effect to the basic civil rights of Gaeltacht communities to education in their own language. To be effective, such a policy, in its implementation strategy, would recognise the need for investment in Gaeltacht education on grounds of basic equity and as an essential element of a more comprehensive state language policy.

7.8 Boards of Management

From the outset the Project was convinced that the school Boards of Management could be an important vehicle for parental involvement in education. Its experiences have confirmed that conviction, and many of its programmes enabled the Project to acquire a deeper understanding of the functioning of the present system and of the degree of parental involvement in the Boards. For many Boards in Gaeltacht areas the financial strain on school budgets reduces their role to that of fundraisers. On other Boards there is such a low level of activity that their influence on local education is barely noticeable. The absence of cooperation and cohesion between Boards of Management diminishes their contribution to education policy in the Gaeltacht.

The efficacy of many Boards is seriously diminished by the absence of communication between officers and members with the result that the new Boards constitute, in practice, no significant advance on the pre-1974 situation of ex officio management.

7.9 The Department of Education

The Department of Education has played a significant role in the Project from the initial stages. The various programmes and alternative research initiatives undertaken emphasised the need for the Department to formulate a realistic coherent policy for education in the Gaeltacht. Within such a policy it is necessary to ensure that other public agencies supply services compatible with this policy. There is a critical urgency and importance attaching to the evolution of an effective language policy based upon the empirical reality. In such a policy the Department of Education must adopt a leadership and innovative role, based upon its executive national responsibility and specifically its policy role in relation to the Colleges of Education and the education of national teachers.

The impact of the Project on education in the Gaeltacht would be enhanced significantly were the Department to adopt the philosophy and central elements of the resource programme as the basis for a policy for underachievers in the Gaeltacht.

7.10 Some Less Successful Outcomes

Over the decade in which the Project operated some aspects gave rise to problems and difficulties which offered valuable insights into the management and direction of such community education projects. These less than successful outcomes include the following:

(i) the limited impact on the roles of the Boards of Management,

(ii) the persistent low level of involvement of some teachers,

(iii) the limited progress towards creating at national level the collaborative partnerships which were achieved at local Project level,

(iv) the limited progress in extending successful outcomes,

(v) the failure to modify the dominant pattern of central-local relationships, within which most policy decisions ignore the reality of local needs and experiences.

The most crucial of these outcomes relates to the transferability process. In this context the Project's experiences in Achill and Donegal deserve some closer scrutiny. In projects such as this, which are based upon self-help and principles of self-reliance, each transfer must be conducted with diplomacy and attention to local parameters. While some of the local conditions may have been less than optimal, the strategy employed in the transfers may also have been partially responsible for the initial non-acceptance. The creation or mobilisation of a network of supportive contacts will usually ensure that the transfer is not rejected as an external imposition.

While it is possible to cooperate effectively at local level with various agencies in the Gaeltacht, their autonomy may frequently be curtailed by the reality that their policy commitments and resource allocations are decided at national level. Therefore, in such projects collaborative activities at local level should be complemented by national ad hoc inter-agency or inter-departmental structures.

The hesitancy of some teachers to accept the model should not cause surprise. While many teachers enthusiastically embrace the philosophy and concepts involved, no model is ever bought or accepted in toto. Furthermore, the nuances of a model are not grasped, adopted or assimilated by all at a uniform rate and the consequent attitudinal changes are not instantaneous. Traditional resistance to change and to role alterations may also hinder complete acceptance.

In reflecting on these less than successful outcomes it is opportune to signal the potential residing in those institutions created specifically to promote the development of the Gaeltacht and enhance the status of the Irish language. These are The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Bord na Gaeilge, Teilifís na Gaeilge and Radió na Gaeltachta. The Comharchumann, whose establishment was supported by Údarás na Gaeltachta and The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, was the catalyst which brought about the Muintearas project. The levels of resource and personnel support received from the State agencies, particularly Údarás na Gaeltachta and The Department of Education, throughout has been generous and continuous. In retrospect, however, we are of the opinion that the full potential at regional level of local language and development agencies in projects such as this has not been realised, partly because they do not function coherently in the policy context and do not adequately influence the policy process at macro level. While the Gaeltacht suffers from many structural disadvantages, it possesses a distinct relative advantage in those special agencies created for its development which share both 'a common vision' and the immense potential to advance the elements of that shared vision.

Conclusion

In summary, the various agencies which serve the educational needs of the Gaeltacht strive, each in its own ways, to meet those needs. However, given the multiple disadvantages under which education in the Gaeltacht operates, many of the efforts of these well-intentioned agencies or bodies are diminished in their impact in the absence of a single agency with responsibility for coordinating national policy. The Project has created an impetus towards educational reform and innovation and has offered a vision of the potential of such innovation. It has interacted with and influenced many institutions, groups and individuals and has contributed to the generation of a new awareness of the need for a coherent Gaeltacht education policy. However, such influences and awareness will have little permanence unless the policy lessons of the Project are captured within a structured medium-term plan, enjoying the active commitment of Government and Government agencies with responsibilities for service-provision in the Gaeltacht.

Chapter 8

Recent Developments and Research

8.1 Youthwork - Recreational Provisions

• Provision of Recreational and Social interaction for youth groups

Muintearas continues to provide disadvantaged young people with recreational facilities and is working with other local groups to promote the development of similar facilities throughout the Gaeltacht. This important aspect of the Muintearas programme is mainly funded by the National Lottery through the Youth Affairs Section of the Department of Education.

The Muintearas youth clubs work towards providing sporting activities during the winter months, while placing strong emphasis on the provision of opportunities for young people to sample new experiences based on the principles of peer education within the social environment of the youth club. Clubs participate in debating, drama and socially desirable projects such as recycling (paper and aluminium cans) outside of the normal sporting activities. The younger childrens' clubs also participate in the recycling activities and go on mountain walks outside of their normal sporting activities.

• Summer Recreational Project

This project was designed to facilitate young Gaeltacht children who witness an annual summer inflow of youth from all over Ireland into their areas to learn Irish. The Summer Colleges attract approximately 20,000 students between 10-18 years annually. The courses are subsidised by the Department of Education and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. The visitors enjoy the use of all the local educational and recreational facilities, quite often to the exclusion of the local population. The Summer Recreational Project provides local children with organised recreational opportunities which have personal development and language objectives. In 1997 four regions took part: Leitir Móir, Inis Oírr, Leitir Mealláin and Carna.

In 1997 the Programme empolyed 22 people and involved more than 100 young people. Many individuals and organisations trained by Muintearas in the organisation and management of summer projects have now successfully developed summer project models in their own areas.

8.2 General Education / Training / Awareness-Raising

• Enterprise Learning Projects

A Simulated Enterprise Learning Project for 14 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds was successfully concluded in 1997 and most of the participants progressed into further training or employment. This Youth Project involved the delivery of full-time training over a period of one year and was funded by the Horizon Programme under the European Union's Human Resource Development Initiative.

The Óg Éacht Project was designed and implemented to provide accredited training for a group of young people not catered for in the special needs category, i.e. 14-18 year-olds who do not participate in mainstream education or the special youth skills/Youthreach programmes. The young people who participated were aged 14 to 19, and many of them came from families with some level of disfunction. Courses included computer skills, sport and recreation, cookery and personal hygiene, personal development, personal finance management and a special individual or group project.

• Youth Information/Resource Centre

A core Muintearas activity in provision for young people is the Youth Drop-in Centre. Having this service in place enables Muintearas youth workers to identify and to build up their knowledge of the short-term and long-term needs of young people within the target area.

A youth leadership training programme has been developed. This programme is used to assist and guide those who work within the Muintearas youth programme.

In order to assess and evaluate the Muintearas model of youth provision on a continuous basis an umbrella youth committee has been set up. The committee comprises representatives of young people, teachers, local community organisations and the local industrial sector.

• Youth Information Programme

Resource Information Centres were organised to disseminate information concerning European Union policies relevant to young people. These centres promote awareness concerning European Union affairs for youth workers, career guidance teachers and others involved with recreational, training and employment, cultural, social, entrepreneurial and education activities for young people.

The EU information initiative provided the basis for a partnership with The Rural College in Draperstown, Co. Derry, which is involved with human resource development interventions in Northern Ireland. From this developed a programme of continuing exchange and cooperation with cross community groups from Northern Ireland as well as a newly developed partnership with the youth programme of the Upper Springfield Development Trust under the Urban Initiative.

• Information Technology Training for young people

Muintearas has expanded and extended it's programme to introduce Information Technology skills to rural Gaeltacht communities. Emphasis is placed on the use of the Internet and teleconferencing to facilitate learning opportunities.

• Recruitment & Training of Youth Leaders in Gaeltacht Regions

During 1997 Muintearas provided training for 19 young people in youth leadership skills. This was achieved through the Social Welfare Summer Job Scheme (12 participants), a Community Employment Programme (3 participants), and on-going training for volunteers (4 participants) who have previously been employed on the Project and now offer their services on a voluntary basis. Muintearas also provided learning experiences in the area of Community Youthwork for approximately fifty third-level students since 1992 utilising the Summer Student Jobs Scheme.

Many of the participants were employed on various Summer Recreational Projects, the Special Educational Programme and in the Youth Resource/Information Centres. Much of the practical training in Youth Leadership Skills was delivered through two local youth clubs in Tír an Fhia, Conamara, which meet every Friday (Teenage Group) and Sunday (National School Age Group).

As a result of the concentration regarding the training of youth workers, Muintearas is in a position to constantly improve it's youth service provision using local human resources and thereby involving the community in all youth activities.

• Clann Lir

This training project for young people is funded under the European Employment Programme YOUTHSTART for the two-year period 1998 and 1999 with matching funding provided by Údarás na Gaeltachta. The aim is to provide a training programme in new computer technologies for young people in the Gaeltacht areas, through the medium of Irish. At present, Muintearas is developing this programme in conjunction with the College of Informatics and Electronics in the University of Limerick.

• YOUTHSTART

Under the YOUTHSTART programme Muintearas proposes to provide a modern, fully equipped mobile technology facility which can enhance the skills of Gaeltacht youth in the various aspects of New Information Technology. The unit will provide training for 40 young people in Modern Technology in order to equip them with the skills required to secure suitable employment and contribute to sustaining their own communities into the 21st Century. The scheme is targeted at marginalised young people.

• International Links

Muintearas is actively engaged in transnational cooperation with youth organisations in Poland and Hungary as well as with the International Youth Foundation. This cooperation has led to a number of exchange visits to these countries. At present, closer ties with youth organisations in the Gaelic- speaking regions of Scotland are being developed, an engagement that has to be seen against the background of the similar cultural and linguistic situation of these regions.

• Cooperation North

Cooperation North is a Cross Border and Cross Community support project. Muintearas has previously utilised this support framework within a tripartite framework, involving the StreetBeat & VIPS Projects in Belfast. The young people on the project are drawn equally from Protestant and Cathloic backgrounds with the aim of learning to accept and respect each others' culture and traditions. In this regard very successful, getting-to-know-you meetings were held between groups of 15-17 year olds from each area.

• Drug Awareness Campaign

Against the background of increasing concern about drug issues in rural areas, Muintearas has been, and continues to be, engaged in an awareness campaign and informative seminars, cooperating with Customs and Excise, the Youth Liaison Officer from the Garda Síochána Drugs Unit and the National Youth Council.

8.3 Special Education Programmes

• Cúrsa Díograise

Cúrsa Díograise is targeted at young people in senior primary classes who have severe learning difficulties. Muintearas implements the programme at two centres in Tír an Fhia, Conamara, to cater for the primary schools in Ceantar na nOileán and in Cill Chiaráin for the Iorras Aithneach west Conamara area. A monitoring committee is in place to plan, assess and develop this particular programme. The core aim of the programme is to encourage the participants to continue with formal education and the programme has proved to be very successful. This programme is funded by the National Lottery and has catered for approximately 200 people since 1992.

• Alternative Education for Teenagers

Muintearas has initiated a successful programme in alternative education for teenagers with learning difficulties. The programme is being administered in Kerry and in Mayo.

• Special Education Programmes for Primary School Children

Every year Muintearas offers a special education programme for primary school children with learning difficulties. Another aspect of the Muintearas educational engagement is the COMENIUS project which focuses on language teaching through arts and crafts for children of returned emigrants and other children who do not have full native competence in the Irish language.

• Horizon Training Programme (Óg-Éacht)

Training was provided for 14 early school leavers in the Camus/Cill Chiaráin area in Conamara. Facilitators were trained in the Conamara and Kerry Gaeltachts who will provide a local service in Irish to children with special needs.

8.4 Women in the Community

• Enterprise Training Programme for women in traditional craft skills

This programme is funded under the European Commission's Employment Initiative NOW with mathching funds provided by Údarás na Gaeltachta. The aim of this project is to provide women living in rural Gaeltacht areas with accredited third-level training to enable them to create their own enterprises based on the traditional craft skills which still exist in the area. In conjunction with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology a year-long distance learning training programme has been devised.

Muintearas applied for and was approved ERDF Funding to establish a multi-purpose Enterprise Centre in the Islands Region. The Centre is intended to be a selling point for the traditional crafts of the area, as well as a venue for training workshops and of cultural heritage exhibitions.

IR£30,000 ERDF Funding has been approved for this project.

• Nasc Ban ('Womens' Network')

Nasc Ban is a voluntary women's network established for the purpose of identifying and supporting the needs of women throughout the Cumas Teo (ADM) Partnership Area. The members of the network are representative of many aspects or sectors which impact on women's lives, including employment, education, training, enterprise, childcare, carers, health services and community work. A women's network coordinator has been employed by Muintearas with assistance from the area Partnership Company (Cumas Teo) to provide full-time assistance to women in the Partnership area and to coordinate the activities of the women's group, Nasc Ban.

• Garumna Project

In 1994 Muintearas initiated a local Enterprise Group comprising eight local women who were producing handknit garments using traditional dyeing methods. Some of them expressed an interest in training the participants on the current NOW project with the skills that they need in order to market their products themselves. They underwent training for this in July 1998. They will also have an outlet for their products when the Enterprise Centre is established under the ERDF funding for the current NOW project.

• Childcare Training

This Muintearas Project aimed to provide a Gaeltacht Programme which incorporated training in childcare and enterprise skills for women, resulting in the provision of better childcare services in the Gaeltacht areas. Forty women from different Gaeltacht areas were trained in childcare. At the end of their programme they received recognised City & Guilds Childcare certification (the first City & Guilds course developed through Irish).

Women aged 18 and over were recruited from the Gaeltacht areas of Conamara, Cork, Donegal, Kerry, Mayo, Meath, and Waterford. One course was conducted in the Conamara Gaeltacht and a second in the Donegal Gaeltacht.

Another programme, funded by th EU Human Resource Initiative Horizon programme, was conducted in the Connemara and Kerry Gaeltacht areas and involved twelve participants. Participants were trained in the area of caring for children with special needs. This Training Programme was accredited by Maynooth University and was conducted in association with the National Rehabilitation Board. Muintearas have since initiated a partnership with the various Health Boards, Local Partnerships and other agencies/organisations dealing with children with special needs in order to provide a comprehensive service for such children in the Connemara and Kerry Gaeltacht regions.

8.5 Community Employment / FÁS

• Community Employment Programme

This programme is operating in two stages, from December 1994 to December 1996 and from December 1996 to December 1998. Twenty people are employed in the areas of: youth work, schools work, building and maintenance work, tourism, childcare, training, womens' issues and catering. Projects undertaken include environmental, training, tourism and language activities.

• Childcare Training

FÁS has been involved in establishing the Cumas Partnership childcare training initiative to reflect the specific skill requirements of childcare workers in the Conamara Gaeltacht, and Muintearas was commissioned by Cumas Teo to carry out the training. The Muintearas training centre is accredited by the National Council for Vocational Awards.

8.6 FÁS External Training Programmes Contracted to Muintearas

Muintearas have been involved in the following FÁS training initiatives on a contractual basis since 1992:

• Women in the Community

A training programme aimed at involving women in rural Gaeltacht areas in the process of Community Development. Muintearas have conducted three of these programmes involving 52 participants.

• Childcare Training Programme

Muintearas are presently piloting a training programme in conjunction with FÁS and the local Partnership Company for the Connemara Gaeltacht area for people who work in the area of childcare. Appropriate accreditation has been organised, using City and Guilds and NCVA, as part of this Comprehensive Training Programme. There are twenty participants on this programme and Muintearas are at present negotiating with other Partnership Companies with the view to conducting similar training programmes in other Gaeltacht regions.

• Community Response Programme

Muintearas are currently involved in a year long community response programme which entails carrying out research into the role of women in the community. Areas of research include health, education and social services, womens role in the family, enterprise and employment, the role of women in the community, equality and representation, hobbies and leisure time, childcare, care of the elderly, and voluntary work in the home and the community. There are 13 participants on this course, from the Connemara Gaeltacht and the Aran Islands. Areas of training include communications, new technology, research and research analysis, and certification will be given by the National Council for Vocational Awards.

• Community Youth Training Programme

Muintearas were involved in this programme which was conducted over an 18 month period, and trained 18 young people in the restoration of a church in Leitir Móir. The restoration of this medieval church involved training in landscaping, conservation and restoration work, masonry, levelling of the interior of the church, identification of graves and plots in the graveyard, compilation of photographic records, and publication of a booklet and short brochure on the church and its history. This work was carried out under the guidance of a consultant archeologist.

Muintearas received funding from the European Employment Initiative Euroform during 1992-94 to develop and implement a heritage project in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Ten participants were trained in the skills of researching, recording and catalogueing local history and folklore and a considerable amount of material was collected which has the potential to form the basis for a local heritage centre.

A heritage museum was established which provided local people and tourists with the opportunity to visualise past cultures and traditions.

Chapter 9

Conclusions

This chapter presents a summary of the general conclusions drawn from the experiences of the Project; the related policy recommendations are presented in the following chapter. The conclusions and recommendations are directed towards national and local policy makers, to those agencies which contribute to the policy process, to educationalists and to all those interested in Gaeltacht education.

When the Bernard Van Leer Foundation agreed to fund the Project in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta and the Department of Education it expressed the hope that the outcomes and conclusions would, by wide dissemination, make a contribution to fuller understanding of education and rural community development in a national and international context. It is in that context that we present these conclusions and recommendations.

9.1 Developing a Megapolicy for Gaeltacht Education

The experiences of the Project raise some major education issues specific to the Gaeltacht, issues which are not being addressed by the existing structures, curricular programmes and policy measures. The nature and extent of the linguistic/education problems in the Gaeltacht are not fully recognised and accepted at national level and are not, consequently, adequately reflected in current policy measures.

The linguistic/education reality in the Gaeltacht may be characterised as follows:

(i) though Irish is the vernacular language there are powerful forces at work shifting the linguistic balance,

(ii) despite its constitutional status as the state's first official language and despite the state's language maintenance policy, in practice, Irish is accorded the status of a minority language,

(iii) most Gaeltacht primary schools, which are small in enrolment with multi-grade classes, experience a limited range of facilities and curricular provision due to the funding system which is capitation based; similarly, the enrolment size of postprimary schools determines their staffing and also the range of subjects available; the management model for rural schools does not seek to optimise the human or material resources made available,

(iv) the specific linguistic and pedagogic problems arising from children of mixed linguistic home backgrounds are not systematically addressed nor catered for.

These questions and other Gaeltacht education issues encountered in this Project require, for satisfactory resolution, that the state and the Department of Education make these issues the object of a megapolicy over a sustained period. The survival of the Irish language in the Gaeltacht may depend ultimately on the successful formulation and implementation of such a megapolicy. A megapolicy involves a comprehensive and coherent set of measures, implemented over an extended period of time, designed to achieve a central major objective and with which other policy measures are in harmony. The provision of education in the Gaeltacht offers an ideal subject for such a megapolicy.

9.2 Policy Formulation and Implementation Agencies

To develop and support a megapolicy for the Gaeltacht it is essential that systematic research-based information be available; such information should provide reliable data on the current situation, on pedagogical and school organisational difficulties and on the professional requirements of teachers and managers in relation to in-career education, school support services and the provision of learning materials.

Furthermore, any policy which does not contain an implementation strategy is doomed to failure; such a strategy will specify goals, time schedules and will identify the agencies, at local and national levels, which will carry responsibility for implementation. In relation to the task of implementation it is vital that school management boards, teachers, the Inspectorate, parents and related state agencies share a common commitment to and understanding of the megapolicy contents and implications. It is also important that the impact and implementation of the policy be reviewed periodically on a structured basis, perhaps at three year intervals; the policy may be modified according to the findings of the review process.

9.3 Initial and In-Service Teacher Education

The success of any education policy bearing upon what occurs in schools will depend to a major extent upon the quality and professional skills and knowledge of the teaching force. Since most of the Colleges of Education are located in urban settings there is a natural tendency for the larger schools of urban areas to provide the templates on which the prospective teachers gain their initial training. It is essential that all courses of Teacher Education should provide a realistic introduction to the variety of school situations encountered in our system. The larger suburban schools should not dominate the process to the exclusion of the inner city schools or the rural Gaeltacht schools.

It would help in this context if specially designed modules were incorporated in mainline courses, modules which would deal with the pedagogical issues arising in different school types.

In regard to In-Service Education the needs of teachers in Gaeltacht schools and of teachers in Gaelscoileanna have not been adequately provided for; of the nineteen Education Centres with full-time directors providing in-service courses not one functions through Irish to serve the needs of teachers of the Gaeltacht and of the Gaelscoileanna. In 1996, the Minister for Education announced the establishment of one such permanent Education Centre, serving the needs of Irish-medium education; that centre is not yet functioning. It is essential for the Department to realise that the teachers of the Gaeltacht and of Gaelscoileanna require the same support systems as their colleagues in English- medium schools; the teachers in Irish-medium schools, have civil and professtional rights which, for too long, have been ignored.

9.4 Production of Learning Materials

The availability of custom-designed and pedagogically-based learning materials is an essential contributory factor in all learning situations; moreover, in a learning environment, such as that of the Gaeltacht, where the instructional policy is grounded on a bilingual strategy such materials are a major determinant of efficiency and quality. This essential consideration has seldom, if ever, been applied consistently to the learning materials available to Irish-medium schools.

Commercial publishers are, understandably, not inclined to commit resources to producing learning materials specifically designed for the limited market offered by the schools of the Gaeltacht and by the Gaelscoileanna. We are not here referring solely to textbook supply but to the production of coherent sets of materials in the different curricular areas, including graded tests, learning packs, computer software and reference sources. Such coherent materials, in addition to their high technical quality, should reflect in their content and idiom the cultural and linguistic reality of the Gaeltacht.

9.5 Parental Participation

Boards of Management were introduced into National Schools in 1974 with a view to giving parents and local communities an active role in the management of primary schools. This movement has extended in the interim to postprimary schools and to the establishment of National Parents Councils, in accordance with the constitutional rights of parents. Such local and parental participation is invaluable in providing a major link between school and home and a significant support mechanism for teachers.

Effective parental participation in management requires that parents have an understanding of the education system, an awareness of their role and an opportunity to acquire the relevant skills and knowledge. The availability of regular courses directed towards parents and their needs would make a reality of the participation of parents in school management.

9.6 Language Policy and the Home

In the experience of the Project it is extremely difficult for teachers to influence a child's command of the language if the efforts of the school are not complemented by the home. The effective implementation of a school language policy is critically dependent on the prior existence of a coherent state policy in the extra-school sector, to which all relevant interest groups, including teachers and parents, are explicitly committed. Furthermore, in the absence of a state policy which is consistent and clearly enunciated it is not surprising that teachers are confused as to language policy in the Gaeltacht.

9.7 Language Policy and the local Gaeltacht Community

From the experiences of the Project it is clear that there is a lack of public awareness of the nature and extent of the shift occurring in Gaeltacht language patterns. Schools and teachers face major difficulties in stabilising, modifying or countering this language shift; these difficulties are exacerbated when parents attempt to make language transmission the total responsibility of the school. Teacher dissatisfaction with this situation is intensified by the inadequate support services available to them, especially in regard to in-career education and ancilliary school services. Gaeltacht teachers are further frustrated by the operational practices of some state and other local agencies which show scant awareness of the linguistic consequences of their practices and, specifically, demonstrate little commitment to the maintenance of the Gaeltacht as a community whose vernacular language is Irish.

From the foundation of the state the policy task of language transmission has been predominantly associated with the Department of Education and with the schools. Such a policy strategy would have been more successful if the work of the schools had been supported by a wider policy network. There is an urgent need for the state to formulate and implement such a wider cultural maintenance and language development policy. It is also essential that the state enjoin on all public agencies the duty of vigorously implementing such a state policy. Within this state policy context there is a vital and urgent need for The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands to develop and implement a cultural maintenance and long-term development policy, involving the coordination of the structures inherent in such a policy. Specifically, Údarás na Gaeltachta should play a key role in developing a coherent set of linguistic measures at domestic, community and school levels and in key administrative and public media sectors throughout the Gaeltacht. Furthermore, at a minimalist level in such a policy, all documentation emanating from state agencies should be available in bilingual formats.

Chapter 10

Recommendations

[These various recommendations are linked numerically to the corresponding conclusions in Chapter 9.]

10.1 A Megapolicy for the Gaeltacht

1.1 That the government develop and implement a megapolicy and related coherent operational measures for education in the Gaeltacht.

1.2 That the provisions of such a megapolicy be included in current education legislation or in a separate Education Bill devoted to the Gaeltacht.

1.3 That the Remedial Resource Model, as developed in the Project, be implemented in all Gaeltacht national schools, as part of the megapolicy.

10.2 Research and Development Unit

2.1 That a special Research and Development Unit be established to serve the education needs of the Gaeltacht. The Unit would:

(i) gather policy-related data, conduct and publish research,

(ii) make a major contribution to the policy process,

(iii) organise, design and deliver in-career education and support services,

(iv) design and develop learning materials.

10.3 Teacher Education

3.1 That specific modules be provided in pre-service education so that all teachers gain experience of a range of cultural and socio-economic school contexts.

3.2 That teachers in Irish-medium schools be offered a coherent in-service programme which takes cognisance of their specific cultural and linguistic working environment.

3.3 That a structure be established, perhaps utilising existing teacher centres, to provide such a programme.

10.4 Curricular and Learning Materials

4.1 That curricular materials for Irish-medium schools be designed and developed and that their production and marketing be publicly funded.

10.5 Parental Participation

5.1 That an independent assessment be undertaken of the functioning of the Boards of Management in the Gaeltacht.

5.2 That national strategies and mechanisms be created to develop and disseminate among parents a knowledge of school policies and procedures and an awareness of their own vital roles in education.

10.6 Language Policy and the Home

6.1 That the state clarify and promulgate its Gaeltacht language policy.

6.2 That the appropriate policy measures arising from such a clarification process be adopted and implemented.

10.7 Language Policy and the Local Gaeltacht Community

7.1 That there be a clear effective policy, with precise published codes of practice, concerning language use by all public service agencies in the Gaeltacht.

7.2 That all officials dealing with the public in the Gaeltacht be competent to conduct their duties in Irish.

7.3 That Údarás na Gaeltachta and The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands design and support a human resource strategy to ensure that functionaries of state agencies providing services in education and in health are competent to do so through Irish.

Bibliography:

1. The Department of Education, (1987) Guidelines in Remedial Education.

2. Ó Riagáin, Pádraig, Language Policy and Social Reproduction, Ireland 1893-1993,

(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997).