Teachers of English to immigrant school students have set up a new organisation to deal with the many problems they and their pupils face.
Delegates from all over the country met for the inaugural conference of the English Language Support Teachers Association in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin, on Saturday.
Some schools have as many as 35 per cent non-English speakers and are finding it difficult to provide for their needs.
Among the problems confronting support teachers are how and when to take students from their regular classes to tutor them in English, how to reconcile varying cultural demands and how to communicate with non-English speaking parents.
Mary Ryan, cathaoirleach of the new organisation, said the Department of Education had been taken by surprise by the surge in foreign national students and teachers must help the department respond.
The conference was addressed by Dr Ronit Lentin of TCD, Dr Josephine O'Brien of Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Hugh Dellar of the University of Westminster.