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TEACHERS IN A Dublin-based secondary school have asked for plans by the Department of Education to convert the school to a Gaelcholáiste to be put on hold.
The plan was announced to convert Synge Street CBS in Dublin 8 to a Gaelscoil and a co-educational school by the Department of Education in September 2024.
However, teachers were only informed of the decision the day before it was announced publicly.
The Association of Secondary School Teachers (ASTI) is now seeking for the plans to be put on hold and for an urgent meeting with the Department of Education over the proposal.
They have welcomed the fact the school’s board of management have contacted the Department of Education to tell them that the conversion will not go ahead as planned in 2026.
At an ASTI meeting at the school this morning, teachers working at the school unanimously agreed to issue a statement which said they are deeply concerned about the proposal to convert their school to a Gaelcholáiste in September 2026.
ASTI Deputy General Secretary, Diarmaid de Paor said the organisation is “very concerned that such a major change to a school, and to the terms and conditions of its teachers, should be attempted with little or no consultation”.
The teachers now want the plans to convert the school to be paused until staff have been properly consulted.
The statement from the school’s teachers said: “Despite the monumental impact of such a decision, the staff and other valued members of our school community were not consulted prior to the announcement on September 11th 2024.
“We were informed on September 10th, a day before the school patron, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST), published the announcement and the Department of Education issued a press release welcoming it.”
They claim they have received “no meaningful communication” from either ERST or the Department of Education on how this change would be implemented or how they would be upskilled to continue teaching at the school.
A survey by the ASTI found that 91% of teaching staff were not in favour of the transition to a Gaelcholáiste.
Conversely, 87% of teaching staff were in favour of a change to a co-educational school (allowing girls).
The teachers said they “fully respect and value” the Irish language and its promotion within education and agree that there is a need for a Gaelcholáiste in the area, but that a transition of the scale proposed should be guided by “transparency, collaboration, and careful consideration of all children’s needs”.
Today’s development comes as a knock to campaigners in Dublin who have been pushing for an additional Irish-language secondary school in the capital.
On Wednesday, school children and their teachers protested outside Leinster House, calling on Education Minister Helen McEntee to deliver the school that was promised last September.
Students from Bunscoil Synge, Gaelscoil Eoin, Gaelscoil Inse Chór, Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg and Scoil Bhríde located in the Dublin 2, 4, 6, and 8 school areas, took part in the protest.
A statement issued by the Department that evening said it remained committed to the establishment of a Gaelcholáiste in the Dublin South City area.
Asked by The Journal yesterday about the plans to convert the school, Minister McEntee said her Department was working closely with all involved.
She said her intention was that the school would be opened in September 2025.
“I don’t see any reason for that not to happen,” she added.
In a statement today, the Gaelcholáiste 2468 campaign said parents and children involved in the campaign for a new gaelscoil are “very worried” about today’s development.
Campaign chairperson and father of four children in Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg, Julian de Spáinn told The Journal:
“We are calling on the Minister to publish a timeline for the Gaelcholáiste and if the Gaelcholáiste is to be located at an alternative site then we need to know this also.
“It is essential to move on this now, to communicate with all stakeholders and to make up for lost time.”
The Department of Education has been contacted for comment.
With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald
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Are all the teachers in the school at present able to teach in Irish?. Do those that can’t lose their jobs or get moved to a non Galecholaiste?. So many unanswered questions.
@Ger Whelan: as is usual with the department. Announcements first then frantic efforts to make the thing work even when it’s impossible. Some subjects on the leaving starting a ‘reformed’ course in September 2025. Still no syllabus. No exam paper. No information on classroom based assessments.
Business as usual with them. And McEntee won’t make a blind bit of difference.
@Alan OConnor: Sorry Alan I beg to differ McEntee will make a difference. She’ll make things far worse. She couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.
@Ger Whelan: totally agree she brought the prison service and the Guards to its knees…..moral and staffing levels at an all time low….i do understand this has been a long term issue but from first hand experience of the minister she is only interested in window dressing and making the situation actually worse and refuses to actually listen to the people doing the job…..so i have no doubt she will do damage to the education system
@Ger Whelan: exactly. Given how hard is it to recruit an Irish teacher this conversion is almost impossible
@Ger Whelan: Nobody could be worse than Norma Foley.
For once I agree with the teachers. The obsession with Irish in this country particularly at the top is unbelievable, we waste hundreds of millions every year on Irish, promoting this fallacy that it’s our national language, we all love it, and we all want to speak it.
@The Firestarter: No one said we all want to speak it. Or that all the teachers
don’t want to speak it. If you don’t want to, keep the negativity about it to yourself. It’s our national language, that’s not a fallacy.
@The Firestarter: it is part of our heritage and it is a lovely language but there are and have been problems over the years with how it was taught in schools and, dare I say it, with the elitist attitude of some Irish speakers. Putting that aside however, there are a number of primary schools in the area where children are taught through Irish and there is need for another secondary school to cater for those pupils.
The move appears to have been badly handled by D. of Ed. and the schools trust though as regards the teachers. Wonder how the kids and there parents already at the school were aware of the proposed move?
@J Ven. Our son went to our local Gaelscoil. Both he and another student were diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and bothe were given every assistance at school but don’t let facts colour your judgement.
@Padraig O’Brien: And I could give you the example of the gaelscoil that doesn’t have the resources for ANAs etc. There is a teacher shortage as there is. While your school may have been lucky, I would hazard a guess that the pool of fluent Irish speaking ANAs is not large enough for the numbers of children requiring support.
@Padraig O’Brien: I’m sure they would get every assistance in all schools so whats your point ?
The problem with Gaelscoils is that they don’t have support for autistic children and other children with disabilities, they are terrible at it. That’s a negative strategy if they want to attract more parents.
@J Ven: that’s why they are so popular, nothing to do with the Irish language.
@The next small thing: It makes no sense, so there are no Irish Autistic Children?
@J Ven: yes of course there is, however if you have a class with children with learning difficulties then that slows down the whole class, just common sense and decency. A parent of a child with no learning difficulties wants the best for their child, (same as any parent), so they enroll in gaelschoils as they know there aren’t going to be as many children with learning difficulties.
@Róisín Flemping Bunt-Himmler: do the Poles/Baltics send their kids to Gaelschools ? Genuine question
@J Ven: My child’s primary Gaelscoil has 2 autism units. So this is not true
@The next small thing: That’s not how it really works, Primary schools have special units dedicated to children with disabilities only, mainstream classes don’t slowdown as they operate completely separately.
@J Ven: Thats with all schools not just Gaelscoils.
@Róisín Flemping Bunt-Himmler: Twisted take.
@The next small thing: the classes in Irish speaking schools have always tended to be smaller – particularly at primary level. Also they used to, and probably still do, have a wider cross section of pupils from a variety of backgrounds and locations. That was the attraction for many parents.
If the staffing ratio and the supports for any child who needed them were in place I imagine a gaelscoil could be quite a good environment for any child to learn.
@The next small thing: that is an outright lie. One of my colleague’s sons is autistic and attends a Gaelscoil in Ashbourne. Why lie? What do you get out of spreading misinformation?
It would be more correct to say the teachers protested and took the children along as a prop. I attended a CBS and it was essentially a Gaelscoil. If I had a choice I would have preferred to be taught in English.
@Róisín Flemping Bunt-Himmler: My experience was in general the lay teachers were worse than the brothers. Punishment was in reverse order to the perceived standing of one’s parents in society.
@Vincent Alexander: Irish was encouraged but it wasn’t a Gealscoil.
@James T.Kirk: All subjects taught through Irish. The encouragement was a slap if one was caught speaking English. The period late 40s and 50s. At the time all good republicans were lauding Israel as the ideal state resurrecting Hebrew. How things have changed in relation to Israel.
This is ridiculous. All teachers would be reasonably competent at primary school level but how can they be expected to make the jump to secondary school? The upskilling required is totally unrealistic. As for the minister in charge. Didn’t think that situation could get worse, but they somehow managed it.
91% is a large number….
Have the students been consulted???
Never fear, now that Steam Roller Helen McEntee is on the case!
She will no doubt listen to all the stakeholders, while nodding meaningfully, then without a second thought disregard everything they have said, steam roll across everyone’s legitimate concerns, followed soon after by a personal photo opportunity and a few meaningless soundbites to dress up the trail of destruction left behind her..
Norma Foleys gift that keeps giving
All, including RTÉ reporter that broke the story this morning. I went to Synge St., and my partner works there now. It’s no secret now who I am amongst some of my partners friends now. I fully support the current response of the school staff.
However, a steady decrease in student enrollment over the last 20 years can’t be ignored. Some parts of me are disgusted by todays events, including the RTÉ report.
It’s fine and dandy when your kid goes to an Irish primary school and, ‘the only for Irish skool’ good on ye.
Shame on your middle to upper classes wanting a place for yerselves.
Nobody should be left out, but it appears the 2468 group doesn’t represent anyone who is from these postal codes…go neírí an bóthar leat!
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