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A NEW UNDERGRADUATE programme in DCU that enables Deaf and hard of hearing people who use Irish Sign Language (ISL) to enter primary teaching is being launched today.
The new Bachelor of Education programme is the first of its kind in Ireland.
It will be provided by DCU’s Institute of Education from this September and applications are now invited through the current CAO process, which is closing on 1 February.
The new pathway into the course is being introduced initially on a pilot basis from September with six places available, with subsequent intakes of students scheduled for September 2023 onwards.
Until now, there has been no entry route to primary teacher education for someone who communicates through ISL and cannot meet the minimum entry requirement for Irish in the Leaving Certificate.
The B.Ed will be open to students who have come through schools for the Deaf or special classes and have taken the Leaving Certificate using ISL and want to teach. It will also be open to mature students.
While entry to the course is exclusively for members of the Deaf community who wish to become primary school teachers working in the deaf education sector, core modules will be delivered along with hearing peers in the B.Ed programme.
Modules specific to deaf education will be delivered separately.
Some deaf education-specific modules will be made available as electives to hearing student-teachers.
Explaining the background of the course, executive dean of DCU’s Institute of Education Dr Anne Looney said: “The new course means that children who access learning and express themselves through Irish Sign Language can be taught by teachers who do the same and who will be fantastic role models for Deaf students in our education system.
Traditionally, the languages needed to enter primary teaching have been English and Irish. Now, ISL gets its full recognition and equal status as a path to primary teaching.
The full-time four-year undergraduate course also includes a 30-week school placement.
Announcing the programme, Minister for Education Joe McHugh said: “This new degree programme for people who are Deaf and hard of hearing to become teachers is a hugely important step towards ensuring increased access and inclusion for all in the classroom.
It is a historic development.
“It will open the door to a world of teaching both for young people who use Irish Sign Language but also for people who want to teach through sign.”
The programme is receiving funding from the Department of Education under the Path 1 inclusion programme.
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My band Cruachan made it to the last ten this year, so close to making the final six for the televised final. A totally different song than normal – celtic folk mixed with metal, thin lizzy meets horslips. Anyway, we’ll release our submission ‘The Blacksmith’ as a standalone single on the same day as Irelands semi final so plz check that out and see what you think
@Keith Fay: if ye make it it’ll be the first good act since Lordi.
@Kieran Fitzgerald: Cheers Kieran, we’ll most likely try again for next year. Ireland needs to stop sending pop!
@Keith Fay: it’d be fine if it was good pop but the best we can do some some lad who can do the Louis Walsh dance move. A.K.A Standing up off a stool on a key change.
And who selects the songs presented on the late late show? Or is it who you know?……
@Rebecca Owens: this is what I was told – “We had a judging panel of over 30 Radio, TV and Entertainment professionals as well as Eurovision fans shortlisting the songs”
@Keith Fay: lol.. Rubbish.. Johnny Rotten!! (English Man). All candidates are politically / agenda picked.
I watch the Eurovision but often it feels like the judges don’t. It feels like they are still locked in the past with no idea of what actually succeeds in the Eurovision nowadays. I mean the audience of Eurovision are hardly diehard fans of the Late Late show way of selecting singers. Johnny Rotten will probably go in purely for the novelty factor.
Yes but I can’t watch Turbity or Marty Whelan, so that rules out Eurosong tonight or Eurovision on RTE.
I watch all kinds of everything
nul points – nein danke
50% polled have no interest, yet the viewing figures every year are huge.
Funny that.
@Eamonn Duggan: Viewing figures are rigged.
@Roger Bond: or more simply, the Journal commenters are not representative of the general population.
@Eamonn Duggan: A quick Google search tells me that, at 314,000 viewers, it wasn’t even in the top 50….
Listened to the songs, i cannot see any going through never mind winning. The competition should be more open to the public. Like it was when it started. A knock out competition
I do watch it, it’s actually quite good.
The bloc vote argument and the naff song argument come from people who haven’t watched the contest in years.
The quality has improved songwise, the winners are not all eastern bloc, recent winners: Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Sweden (twice), Austria, Denmark.
I do think RTÉ needs to make more of an effort when you see what the rest of Europe brings each year. We won’t be holding that record for much longer and when that happens, which it will, we won’t be able to tug at the Johnny Logan nostalgia strings any longer. Change if approach is needed now.
Look at United Kingdom, coming second last year, would have won only for Ukraine, however end up hosting in Liverpool this year, so they may as well have won the thing last year.
Every mention of John Lydon and P. I. L. has been removed!!! Why??
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Cause the system don’t like it.
@Keth Warsaw: It’s a great rock ‘n roll swindle if you ask me.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: And tonight….never mind the bolox.
@Keth Warsaw: bollix
Yes, taking a shot everytime Marty makes a patronising remark about one of the other countries.
The Eurovision became a complete joke show when those Eastern European countries came onboard.
@Roger Bond: So you’d kick out all the countries east of Berlin?
junket for some who look forward to the trip yearly and the taxpayers being fleeced to pay for such trips , RTE. And their Mafia and political connections wast of taxoayers money as some sections of society go hungry and have to live in the cold homes if they have one to live in .
Has become too big. Bring back four singers and frocks, and a real connection. Don’t need to watch pornstars throwing out noise.
…Never gonna happen.
Not since My Lovely Horse.
Let JR represent Ireland. We have been too anodyne fit too long.
Eurovision peaked in 2006.
@Kieran Fitzgerald: 1970 s
I did and it was cringeworthy
Amateur hour
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