Irish School Aid is an independent volunteer organisation whose purpose is to financially support Irish-medium education in Ireland. Irish-medium schools, known as Gaelscoileanna, are primary and post-primary schools functioning in accordance with standards set forth by the Irish Department of Education and Skills. Children in the Irish-medium schools are developed and nurtured through the provision of a full and comprehensive curriculum as set out by the Department. Irish is the language of instruction in Irish-medium schools and the language of communication between teachers, children, parents and boards of management.
The primary goal of Irish-medium schools is for the survival of the Irish language as a living means of communication, through excellence in education. Research findings demonstrate that there are many advantages of bilingualism and of the immersion education sector for children, including linguistic, educational and social advantages.
Irish School Aid was founded by Stiofán Ó Labhraí due to the current situation of Ireland's educational climate, which includes more English-medium schools than traditional Irish-medium schools and its belief that this is having a detrimental effect on the language. Irish School Aid's stated purpose is to combat the loss of the Irish language, and foster support in the educational system. Irish School Aid's intention is to direct capital from donors to schools under a model that sends larger donations to needier schools, and smaller donations to more financially secure schools.
Famous quotes containing the words irish, school and/or aid:
“Ireland still remains the Holy Isle whose aspirations must on no account be mixed with the profane class-struggles of the rest of the sinful world ... the Irish peasant must not on any account know that the Socialist workers are his sole allies in Europe.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“...women were fighting for limited freedom, the vote and more education. I wanted all the freedom, all the opportunity, all the equality there was in the world. I wanted to belong to the human race, not to a ladies’ aid society to the human race.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)