The latest Leaving Cert Irish figures show exemptions from the subject are being widely abused, Ciara Kelly has warned.
Nearly 61,000 students got their Leaving Cert results on Friday; however, nearly one-quarter of them did not sit Irish.
The 13,695 students who did not take Irish amounts to 23% of all Leaving Cert students – up from 15% just six years ago.
The majority of those who did not sit the exam have received exemptions on the basis of learning difficulties or having been educated outside of Ireland for a period.
Leaving Cert
On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Ciara Kelly said the exemption system is being abused.
“We have a record number of people sitting the Leaving Cert, but almost one-in-four are not sitting Irish,” she said.
“This is because of exemptions largely but bear in mind, when you drill into those exemptions, these same people who have this specific language deficiency - some kind of learning disability around language - they're sitting Spanish and they’re sitting French and German and Italian and these kinds of modern languages, they’re just not sitting Irish.”
Learning disability
She said there is no such thing as a learning disability that prevents people from doing Irish but allows them to take other languages.
“People are using exemptions to get out of doing Irish,” she said. “We have Irish as a mandatory subject in school, but almost a quarter of kids not taking it and that is despite [the rise in] Gaelscoileanna now.
“So, more and more people are actually speaking Irish and even doing their Leaving Cert through Irish than ever before but despite that, we have the largest number of exemptions.”
“So, there's something going on and I think the exemption thing is being abused.
“There is not one-in-four people who have a learning disability, there simply isn't, so the exemption thing is being abused.”
"Nod and a wink"
Fellow presenter Shane Coleman said the situation “just sums up our lack of interest in the Irish language”.
“It is our failure to actually properly teach it, to properly embrace the Irish language,” he said.
“Also, isn't that how we do things in this country?
“It's the kind of nod and a wink. Oh no, we're still going to have compulsory Irish - nod and a wink - but you know what? You can get an exemption from it.”
He said the attitude is similar to the situation with Irish leaner driving licenses.
“I mean, what percentage of our population is driving non-stop on provisional driving licenses?
“It's the old nod and a wink, it's how we do things; we just don't really play by the rules in this country.”
