Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta are launching Irish language resources and research to tackle the impact of the pandemic on Irish Medium schools.

The launch of ‘Sealbhú’ is set to take place in Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich this Thursday between 10:00-11:30am.

In June 2020, Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta distributed a paper which highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the Irish medium sector between the educational authorities. 

The paper, which included the impact on the education sector as a whole, illustrated the additional impact the pandemic had on Irish medium pupils as a result of the periods spent outside the immersion environment. The paper also emphasised how the pandemic highlighted the long-standing issues faced by the Irish medium sector which included a lack of investment in educational resources and Irish language infrastructure online.

Consequently, the Department of Education have acknowledged the additional pressures and made funding available for the 2021/22 school year to allow for the creation of Irish language resources and for important research to be carried out on the impact of the pandemic on the Irish medium education sector.

Additionally, emphasis was placed on the lack of wellbeing resources available in Irish as young people struggled with the consequences of the pandemic. Therefore, funding was given to Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta to develop Irish language wellbeing resources, which they say, will go a long way in improving the wellbeing and mental health of their pupils.

Orla Nig Fhearraigh, coordinator of the ‘Sealbhú’ project, said: “Although Coronavirus is still in the public’s mind, our schools are returning this year with the opportunity to focus on teaching and learning primarily. The last two years have been a difficult period and the full effects are still to be felt.

"Major efforts were made during the pandemic to put resources and infrastructure in place for pupils throughout the north to support them whilst learning from home. Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta was disappointed, however, that most of these resources were in English alone.

"We were heartened, however, that after sustained advocacy from ourselves and the sector itself, we succeeded in obtaining this funding. This gave us the opportunity to tackle some of the additional pandemic related challenges faced by the Irish medium sector, specifically language acquisition in the context of children not being in school for sustained periods of time.

"We thank our partners in CCEA for their efforts in creating additional resources in a short timeframe and Gearóid Ó Domagáin, University of Ulster, for undertaking valuable research on the impact of the pandemic in the IM sector."