Irish Exemptions Surge, Sparking Debate

0:00From across Europe, powered by AI, this is Europe News Today. I'm Corey with the story. Officials from Ireland's Department of Education just admitted there's no system to exempt kids with extra learning needs from studying English, or math at primary or post-primary levels. But for Irish, exemptions are a thing, even though it's the only subject schools are technically required to offer everywhere from primary right up. To leaving cert, in the 2024-25 school year, 12,131 primary pupils, about 2.2% got Irish. Exemptions, while post-primary hit a record, 60,946. Numbers for primary exemptions have actually dropped since 2018, but post-primary ones keep climbing, sparking heat from Irish language, groups who say it's out of hand. At primary schools, exempted kids often skip Irish by joining special education classes slide a right at the same time, which one official called FAR.

1:02From best practice, politicians are fired up, pointing out schools bend over backward to help kids tackle English or math struggles, but Irish just exempt them. A senator nailed it, no proof extra needs mean you can't learn a language, especially since many immigrant kids arrive bilingual and pick up more. TDs are calling the whole set up broken. Department reps stressed exemptions are for truly rare cases only, and the latest rules say exempted pupils should still get some Irish exposure like, listening or speaking at their level. They're prepping info leaflets for parents and teachers, plus eyeing schools with super low exemption rates to learn their tricks. Meanwhile, there's a fresh two-year action plan called, is spader Liam, is spader Liam, I can, we can, to boost Irish teaching in English medium. Schools do better engagement. This debates heating up as the push for smarter language support rolls on.