Consultation closes: 4 April 2025

Introduction

Pat Sheehan MLA is seeking to introduce a Member’s Bill to place a statutory duty on the Department of Education to deliver a Workforce Plan for the Irish Medium Education (IME) sector every 5 years.

The objective is to address the workforce shortage within the IME Sector and to ensure it has access to sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified staff, across all stages of education.

There is a particular and urgent need to increase the supply of specialist subject teachers at post primary level and to ensure that there is an adequate supply of Special Educational Needs professionals available to the sector.

According to the Education Authority, the number of IME schools and units is growing.

Currently, there are almost 8000 pupils in IME, along with 450 teachers in 46 nursery schools, 35 primary schools and 5 post-primary schools.

IME is the fastest growing education sector in the north, in order to sustain that growth and to meet the demand for IME, urgent intervention is required to ensure that the sector has access to appropriately qualified staff at all levels.

This issue will have a detrimental effect on the educational experiences of children who wish to be educated through the medium of Irish as workforce shortages can limit their access to quality education in Irish, including smaller class sizes and specialised support.

It also affects teachers, who will face increased workload and stress, and it will impact on parents, who may struggle to find adequate IME schooling options for their children.

Over time, the wider Irish-speaking community could see a negative impact on efforts to promote and preserve the language.

Since the statutory duty to encourage and facilitate Irish Medium Education was introduced in 1998 some ministers have been more proactive in relation to it than others. The lack of intervention in recent years to address workforce shortages has created the need for this Member’s Bill.

To help develop this Member’s Bill, Pat Sheehan MLA would like to hear your views, please consider taking part in the following survey.

References:
1. https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/irish-medium-education

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