This article is from page 29 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
NUMBERS at Gaelscoil Mhichil Chiosog on the Gort Road are set to double over the next number of years as the school is set to embark on ma- jor expansion plan thanks to funding from the Department of Education.
The school which will celebrate 25 years in existence next year is set to receive €240,000 from the Depart- ment, enabling it to construct new classes and move from a one-stream to a two-stream school.
“The grant will help us build two new classrooms and start the process of moving from a one-stream to two-
stream school,” says principal, Donal O hAiniféin. “At the moment we have one class for junior infants, one class for senior infants and up along. Over the next eight years because of the demand, we will have two classes for each year. We will start by tak- ing an extra junior infants class next year, so after a period of eight years we ll move from having 200 students in the school to having around 400. “You need to ensure when you go from one-stream to two-stream you have enough pupils. We need to be taking in 54 or 55 junior infants next year. That is a challenge for us. We turned away about 25 students last
year. That’s a failure on behalf of Gaelscoil na hInse. Now we hope to change that,” he added.
And, as part of encouraging more people to consider a gaelscoil as an education option for their children, Mr O hAiniféin has highlighted the need for an awareness programme for parents.
“We need to get it across to people what a Gaelscoil is — it’s an all-Irish primary school that’s open to every- body. People don’t realise that going to Gaelscoil is a choice they have.
‘People have a lot of baggage con- cerning Irish, which has been be- stowed upon them by our education
system. Some of them have very bad memories of the Irish language and they blame the Irish language. Ninety five per cent of the parents don’t speak Irish. The vast majority of parents want something different for their children.
‘In the mind the Gaelscoil 1s in Cois na hAbhna, where it started in 1993 and stayed until 1998. There seems to be a deficit of communication re- garding what is a gaelscoil. The main deficit 1s regarding the new Irish. The Poles, the Lithuanians, people form Africa, they don’t realise that the Gaelscoil is an option for them,” he ANOeloxen