Teaching Council Post Primary Language Requirements

Yolo141

Hi guys,

Just on the teaching council website. It states that to register as an Irish teacher, one must have residential experience of at least 3 months in an area designated as a Gaeltacht area.
Any Irish teachers out there? Did ye move to a Gaeltacht area, if not already from one?

Appreciate any feedback!

Caiseoipe19

No, they never looked for proof.

Yolo141

okay cool- thanks!

Powerhouse

Yolo141 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just on the teaching council website. It states that to register as an Irish teacher, one must have residential experience of at least 3 months in an area designated as a Gaeltacht area.
Any Irish teachers out there? Did ye move to a Gaeltacht area, if not already from one?

Appreciate any feedback!

Significant time spent in the Gaeltacht would be an in-built part of any university degree course in Irish over three/four years so anyone with a degree in Irish should automatically have spent significant time in the Gaeltacht. In that sense independent 'proof' doesn't come into it. The proof is that you have fulfilled the criteria laid down for the award of a degree which would include Gaeltacht attendance. In the same way you don't have to provide independent proof that you have studied nineteenth-century Ireland as part of a History degree - the TC would be presumably be aware of the content of degree course they recognise.

Now, of course, the integrity of that whole business might be under threat at the moment with the new fashion of people 'adding on' subjects via short-cuts and not necessarily approaching a subject from the traditional degree route. Whether the TC has the mental capacity to police this in the case of Irish or any other language (and frankly it's the least they should do if they are interested in mainatining any standards) is another matter of course.

Caiseoipe19

Powerhouse wrote: »

Significant time spent in the Gaeltacht would be an in-built part of any university degree course in Irish over three/four years so anyone with a degree in Irish should automatically have spent significant time in the Gaeltacht. In that sense independent 'proof' doesn't come into it. The proof is that you have fulfilled the criteria laid down for the award of a degree which would include Gaeltacht attendance. In the same way you don't have to provide independent proof that you have studied nineteenth-century Ireland as part of a History degree - the TC would be presumably be aware of the content of degree course they recognise.

Now, of course, the integrity of that whole business might be under threat at the moment with the new fashion of people 'adding on' subjects via short-cuts and not necessarily approaching a subject from the traditional degree route. Whether the TC has the mental capacity to police this in the case of Irish or any other language (and frankly it's the least they should do if they are interested in mainatining any standards) is another matter of course.

Trips to the Gaeltacht were purely optional in my course. There were a number of weekend trips during the year as well as a week-long at the end of the summer holidays if I remember correctly. Due to other commitments I could not attend most of them. One that I did get to attend, there were only a handful out of approx 200 students from my year there.

I strongly recommend spending time in the Gaeltacht OP, for reasons I'm sure you know yourself; but no, the TC don't ask.

Powerhouse

Caiseoipe19 wrote: »

Trips to the Gaeltacht were purely optional in my course. There were a number of weekend trips during the year as well as a week-long at the end of the summer holidays if I remember correctly. Due to other commitments I could not attend most of them. One that I did get to attend, there were only a handful out of approx 200 students from my year there.

I strongly recommend spending time in the Gaeltacht OP, for reasons I'm sure you know yourself; but no, the TC don't ask.

That's extraordinary. Was that the case for every year of your degree? Which college was that? And how on earth did people develop their spoken Irish?

Naoko

Is it just for courses on their list of recognised degrees and/or for Irish that they don't ask for proof? I'm sure I read about people having to prove that they spent at least three months in France before they could register as French teachers. There may also have been talk of dodgy dealings whereby people would spend two weekends, three months apart, in the foreign country and furnish the TC with proof of the first flight over and the second flight back...

Crazyteacher

It may be that they see living in Ireland at all as complying with the Irish language requirement . Who is to say that people don't speak Gaelige at home all the time

I think for French they require more evidence than plane tickets now. More like evidence of work/volunteering in a French speaking area.