Teachers a priority for spoken-Irish centre

The need to provide specific courses aimed at primary and second-level teachers will be addressed at NUI Cork's centre for spoken…

The need to provide specific courses aimed at primary and second-level teachers will be addressed at NUI Cork's centre for spoken Irish. According to its director, our own teachers within the university." The university's centre, Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha, has trebled the number of people attending Irish language courses in the last five years. There are now almost 900 people, including students, academic staff and members of the public, going to courses of various types throughout the year at the centre, which aims to promote Irish as a living language on campus among all categories of staff and students. Nine course types in conversational Irish were offered in the last academic year (1996-97) including a computer skills course, a complete beginners' course and a course to prepare people for the Ceard Teastas oral exam. Pol Ruiseal says there is a "huge gap" in the provision of a course specifically aimed at teachers. There have been already once-off courses for teachers at the centre. A cross-section of UCC students, academic staff and second- and primary-level teachers attended the centre's first computer skills course, which was run as a pilot in 1996-97.