Madam, - I wish to add further clarification of my position in light of ASTI general secretary John White's response to my opinion piece on the position of minority ethnic and/or language students in Irish schools (August 22nd and 20th, respectively).
My concern is in the first instance with the school achievement of minority ethnic and/or language students.
The symbolism of placing these students in separate classrooms was not my primary concern in this particular debate.
My initial point is that cognitively and affectively speaking, this proposal would put many minority ethnic/language students at greater risk of school failure.
In that sense, while the intention is not to "segregate" at the outset, the achievement outcomes will ultimately serve to segregate students.
I note your Editorial (August 22nd) suggests that instances of early immersion have worked in other countries. I would like to reiterate my point on social class: students for whom immersion works elsewhere are often already positioned to achieve for reasons other than their school's approach to language teaching.
In Ireland, intercultural policy and socio-economic dis/advantage policy have yet to formally overlap in the arena of school achievement.
The support for the mother tongue of minority language students will likely have a key positive influence on their success in English, but this has received little attention in the media.
My piece also mentioned the frustrations of teachers and parents; I readily acknowledge and support the high levels of professionalism, expertise and positive responses shown by the many thousands of second-level teachers in Ireland in more ethnically/linguistically diverse settings.
These teachers are negotiating school inclusion in an already highly exclusive school system.
My feeling is that students, teachers, families, teachers' representatives and researchers should be directing their concerns more towards greater Government resourcing (as the editorial does), rather than inadvertently supporting school competition. - Yours, etc,
KARL KITCHING, St Patrick's College, Dublin 9.