Following the withdrawal yesterday of Circular 44, a controversial directive by the Department of Education, Irish language schools will no longer be required to teach English to junior infants.
Circular 44, which was introduced by Mary Hanafin, the Minister for Education and Science, in July 2007, necessitated that all Irish language primary schools were required to teach English for a minimum of 30 minutes every day in spite of fierce opposition from Irish language groups. This directive, notes the Irish Times, had basically forced Irish-medium primary schools to abandon their preferred approach of total immersion.
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