Migrant strategy aims to make integration 'the norm' in classrooms [IrishTimes]
- Published: 16 September 2010
TEACHERS SHOULD create a more “intercultural learning environment” in classrooms and focus more on developing pupils’ English language skills during regular lessons.
These are two key proposals in a new Government five-year migrant education strategy, which aims to make “inclusion and integration the norm” and combat racism in schools.
No new funding is being allocated to deliver the strategy, which has been developed to respond to a significant rise in the number of migrants in the school system. New figures in the Intercultural Education Strategy 2010-15 show there was an 87 per cent increase in the number of immigrant children in the school system between 2002 and 2006.
In the 2009/10 academic year there were 28,422 migrant children attending second-level schools, 9 per cent of the school population. At primary level, there are 45,700 immigrant pupils out of a total student population of 476,000. British, Polish and Nigerians are the three biggest migrant groups at second-level schools.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
