The Department of Education has sanctioned the appointment of 14 new support teachers to 20 primary schools in Dublin and Ennis, Co Clare, to teach English to the children of refugees and asylum-seekers. The jobs will be advertised soon.
This follows a departmental working group report to the Minister for Education and Science at the end of last year which showed that there were children from 104 countries in the State's primary schools.
A survey of primary schools carried out for the working group showed most of the schools with more than 20 non-English-speaking pupils are in Dublin, with others in Ennis, Galway, and Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
Based on information supplied by the school principals, the report concluded that 1,100 primary pupils - out of a total of 1,614 non-English-speaking pupils in the system - needed additional language support.
The new teachers will specialise in English-language tuition and will help immigrant children fit in with everyday class activities. Previously, special English-language training was available only to a limited number of so-called UN "programme" refugees from Vietnam, Bosnia and Somalia. The new teachers will teach all "non-national" children with language difficulties, including those of asylum-seekers.
Eighteen of the 20 schools in the new scheme are in Dublin. The schools with the largest number of "non-national" pupils are the Islamic School in Clonskeagh (150 pupils); Laurel Lodge NS in Castleknock (61); St Mark's Junior NS in Tallaght (34); St Ciaran's NS in Hartstown (31); St Louis infant and girls' national schools in Rathmines (43); Huntstown NS (29); Stanhope Street NS (26) and Plas Mhuire national schools (28).
Two schools in Ennis - Holy Family senior and junior national schools - are also included.
Last week the Department of Education also announced £250,000 in funding for the Refugee Language Support Unit, based in TCD, which will oversee the language training of adult refugees who have been given permission to stay in the State.
Additional reporting by Jamie Smyth.