Post Primary Teaching - Subjects

Jugs82

Hey,

My girlfriend is starting the 1 Yr Masters in German in NUIG in a few weeks and hopes to get into the Dioploma Iarchéime san Oideachas afterwards.

She has a primary degree in Business and German (although she doesnt seem to be eligible to teach German) She is also a native Irish speaker and ideally she wants to end up teaching German and Irish

NUIG have 1 year diplomas in Irish and i was wondering if she completed this, would she be qualified to teach Irish as a result?

Any help would be great - cheers

Rosita

This is taken from the post-graduate applications website.

Being awarded the Postgraduate Diploma in Education is not a guarantee of
eligibility to teach in Ireland. Formal registration as a teacher in the post-primary school system in the Republic of Ireland is determined by primary degree subject(s).


The part in bold fairly clearly suggests the answer to your question is 'no'.

It further states on that site (which seems like just a more detailed way of saying the same thing):


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR RECOGNITION TO TEACH
IRISH (Gaeilge)
(In Addition to the General Requirements)
Applicants must provide officially certified evidence of satisfactory achievement in primary degree studies (or equivalent) as outlined hereunder:
_ The study of Irish as a major subject in the degree extending over at least three years and of the order of 30% at a minimum of that period.
_ Details of the degree course content to show that the knowledge and understanding required to teach Irish to the highest level in post-primary education has been acquired.
_ The study of a substantial body of relevant literature through the medium of Irish as an integral part of the degree course supported by the list of authors and texts studied throughout the course.
_ Residential experience of at least three months in an area designated as a Gaeltacht area.
_ Explicit details of standards achieved in degree studies in Irish with at least an overall Pass result in the examinations in Irish.


I suppose an obvious counter-argument to the 'but she's a native speaker' is that people who are native speakers of English and do the PGDE through English are not eligible to teach English.

Jugs82

Cheers Rosita - had a chat last night and it actually seems that she can teach German from her Primary degree as it was Business and German from UL.

German made up a significant part of her studies while she also lived over there for over a year, so this satisfies the criteria to teach German

I suppose an obvious counter-argument to the 'but she's a native speaker' is that people who are native speakers of English and do the PGDE through English are not eligible to teach English.

I do understand this, i would be a god awful English teacher for example
I was just wondering if there was anyway that she could pursue a path towards teaching Irish but looking at the requirements listed below, it seems doubtful

Rosita

I'm not sure to be honest. The guidelines do seem unambiguous. You see there's a huge huge literature content to an Irish degree and I suppose they want people to have covered that. The Diploma is a good standard I know but the guidelines do not seem to allow for it.

I wonder if there is a part-time Arts option in NUIG or anything like that where she could do Irish?

gaeilgegrinds

At the moment no, without a degree it just won't happen. Another Irish teaher lost her job in our school over this this year, that said there's two Irish teachers in another Galway school who can't hold a conversation and never did it, go figure!