There is a need to create spaces for immersion in the Irish language and students at Gaelscoileanna will not be required to take classes in English, according to Northern Ireland's Minister for Education, Caitríona Ruane.
Outlining her views on the issue yesterday - which contradict those of her Southern counterpart, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin - Ms Ruane said that the most important thing when it comes to literacy was that children were reading.
There are currently 21 Gaelscoileanna in Northern Ireland.Under a circular issued by Ms Hanafin recently, all Southern Gaelscoileanna must teach English for 30 minutes every day, starting from the second term of junior infants. The directive followed complaints that some schools favouring total immersion in Irish provide no English tuition for the first two years in primary school.
But Ms Ruane said that she had not seen "any evidence" that children need access to an English curriculum at that stage of their development.
"This argument that children suffer, I don't subscribe to that," she told The Irish Times. "I think that's the important thing . . . if you're looking at literacy targets, whether it's literacy in Irish or literacy in English, the important thing is that our children are reading. There's an awful lot of English in our society, we must create spaces for immersion. And I think that those first few years in school are very important and that it should be through the medium of Irish."
Ms Ruane was speaking at the launch of the second year of Foras na Gaeilge's Gleo scheme in Dublin yesterday. It aims to recognise schools for outstanding commitment to the promotion of spoken Irish in English-medium primary and post-primary schools. However, Ms Hanafin, who also attended the launch, reiterated her belief that it is important for every child to be able to speak Irish and English.
In disadvantaged areas, for example, children are coming into school with neither English nor Irish, she said.