Can i get an exemption from Irish?

tornados2111

Hi, I'm 14 years old, in 3rd year. I was born in Ireland but my parents were born in Russia, and my first language was Russian. In Irish I get around 40% but now my Irish has really been slipping and I'm getting around 10%. Is there any way to get an exemption from Irish since Russian was my first language? Where would I go first for some kind of application form? thanks in advance!

Geekness1234

tornados2111 wrote: »

Hi, I'm 14 years old, in 3rd year. I was born in Ireland but my parents were born in Russia, and my first language was Russian. In Irish I get around 40% but now my Irish has really been slipping and I'm getting around 10%. Is there any way to get an exemption from Irish since Russian was my first language? Where would I go first for some kind of application form? thanks in advance!

You have to have to have come to Ireland before the age of 11.So no.

tornados2111

There are guys in my class who were born here, and have been learning it until 6th class, but they have an exeption??!!

Mrs. T

If you were born in Ireland you cannot get an exemption unless you have a diagnosed learning difficulty.

Primary schools tend to take students out of Irish class to give support for English or Maths even though the student doesn't qualify for an exemption so maybe that's what happened wth your friends.

Geekness1234

tornados2111 wrote: »

There are guys in my class who were born here, and have been learning it until 6th class, but they have an exeption??!!

Any learning disability will qualify you for an exemption.

spurious

tornados2111 wrote: »

There are guys in my class who were born here, and have been learning it until 6th class, but they have an exeption??!!

Maybe they have a disability. Exemptions are not just based on where you lived.
The top students in Irish in many schools are of Eastern European heritage.

English is the first language of most 'Irish' students, I don't see why you think if your first language is Russian it makes a difference.

tornados2111

i thought i could do a Russian exam instead of Irish, i go to a Russian school

jkwxez12yrdgbq

I tried this one out too when I was doing my JC (about 15 years ago at this stage so it's going back a while). My father is German so I thought I'd be able to get out of doing the Irish exam but to no avail. You have to have lived outside the country until you are 11 years old or have a learning disability to be exempted.

tornados2111

ugh

Mrs. T

The compulsary subjects are nothing to do with your school. The Dept of Education decides on them. You could take Russian as another language but not in place of Irish.

If you were born here you simply don't qualify for an exemption. Sorry!

byhookorbycrook

Geekness1234 wrote: »

Any learning disability will qualify you for an exemption.

Untrue.

tornados2111

My Irish teacher said I could get expelled if i continued failing Irish, is that true?

Geekness1234

tornados2111 wrote: »

My Irish teacher said I could get expelled if i continued failing Irish, is that true?

It is actually fairly hard to get expelled,but I'd say that's bullsh!t.

tornados2111

Is is possible that in school rules, it says that each student must pass irish?

Beante

You can't get expelled for failing a subject. Irish is compulsory so you must do it.
For the Leaving Cert if a student fails an important subject, like English or maths or Irish, it may have repercussions. Failing maths is a problem for most students, as a pass in maths is an entry requirement for most college courses. Irish is similar.

saa

I think you'd have to do your Russian exam as well as Irish.

You could avail of funding from the school to get a dyslexia screening which is about 600 euro for two hours, but this is not a disability but it does impair some people like myself from learning languages, memory, mistakes in writing, organisational skills, and math.

If you think its just Irish you're struggling with it would be unfair to take that funding for the screening if you don't believe you have an issue like that.

Okay so lets say you "can't" do Irish, you can. If you can pass other exams you can pass Irish without understanding it.
I did lower level, the JC you can guess a lot of the answers and get a D.
For the leaving cert I was really in a bad position, I wanted to opt for foundation but I wouldn't get into college..

so my teacher accepted I was aiming for a D so I learned basic phrases not whole sets of verbs, I learned a postcard, I guessed main words and learned the questioning words and then wrote something that didnt make sense but I got points for it, a big part of the test is listening and ticking boxes I managed to repeat what I heard or give a good guess.

For the oral I remember talking about all the things I like in school and what my parents do, it can help as well to learn some phrases to turn around a question or the examiner will move onto something you know and help you out a lot.. the examiner for the paper will see you're not making sense and give marks for effort even if you're a little off the point.

Trust me they see a lot of papers that contain terrible Irish you just have to find ways around it, I use to be really specific in what I learned and wrote it out ten times, used a lot of pictures.
Now you have Google translate in Irish and online resources, you might be someone like me who learns through listening rather than reading.


No it isn't good enough we have to do this and are forced to do three subjects that many people have no chance of doing well in.


Now.. the best thing you can do is work around your difficulties
make sure the teacher knows the problem areas and doesn't think you're not bothered or they will not help you get through.
Talk to someone about how exactly exemptions work, you would need to see where exactly in writing it lists the hows and whys of the exemptions, depending on how its worded or just because you could defiantly fight your corner but within a few years with the crisis we're in I can't see this being changed.

tornados2111

Why do colleges want you to know Irish well?