IRISH schools are getting lost in translation as teachers struggle to cope with increasing numbers of non-English-speaking pupils.

Schools are having to slow the pace of lessons and show greater caution when disciplining pupils because of language limitations and cultural barriers.

A conference of primary school principals heard last week that enrolments have become an ordeal in many areas as head teachers and non- English-speaking parents struggle to communicate with each other.

Tomas O’Slatara, the president of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), said: “My first experience of this was two years ago, when two Polish children and their parents arrived at my school on August 31, the day before term started, with not a word of English between them.

“They brought along a friend and I spent half an hour getting him to explain and interpret so I could find out as much as I could about the children. It was a challenging situation.”

The Department of Education says 22,200 foreign students, now officially being termed “newcomers”, enrolled in primary schools in the 2004/5 school year. These include the children of asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers from EU accession states. The highest concentration is in urban areas and an estimated 60% are from non-English-speaking backgrounds.

St Thomas’s Junior school in Lucan has 463 pupils, 30% of them foreigners. The school has 32 nationalities and uses three language-support teachers.

Michael Maher, its principal, said that in a class of 28, up to 10 pupils may have very little English. Many of these children, particularly from eastern Europe, come from families where neither parent speaks English, or it is rarely spoken in the home.

“These children are landing straight in school at junior infant level without a single word of English,” Maher said. “There is a good case for some sort of early-learning start, or nursery structure, in the year prior to starting primary school. It would also be a good opportunity to integrate the parents of those children into society in terms of normal customs or practices. Occasionally we’ve had cases where parents see the use of physical correction as okay if their child has misbehaved. We have to explain to them that they just need to sit down and talk to the child.”

The IPPN wants better translation and interpretive services for schools to help newcomers overcome the initial language barrier when enrolling.

“All of a sudden schools are 10%, or in some cases 50%, international,” said David Ruddy, legal adviser to the IPPN. “We’re at a stage where we need to have enrolment forms in the languages of popular interim countries such as Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. I should be able to welcome parents of pupils in their own language. Translating basic school policies such as anti-bullying booklets or school signs would be a starting point.”

The Department of Education allocates language-support teachers to schools according to the the number of pupils with English-language difficulties. Schools with 14 or more non-English-speaking students are automatically entitled to a language-support teacher for up to two years. Schools with 28 or more are entitled to two, but the maximum available is three.

In the current school year there are 1,100 language support teachers employed, 802 of them in primary schools. The 2007 budget estimates make a provision for 200 more. A further 350 posts will be provided between 2008 and 2009. From next September, language assessment kits to determine the level of English of newcomers will be distributed to all schools.

Bunmi Salako, a special education teacher in Dundalk, moved from Nigeria in 1999. Emmanuella, her 18-year-old daughter, found it difficult to settle into her new surroundings. The school suggested she give a presentation on Nigeria to her classmates to help her explain the culture and traditions.

“She wore a costume and told her class about Nigeria and they loved it,” said Salako. “It worked because she was telling them all these new things about herself and she made friends immediately. The problem for children who move is that they don’t have a sense of belonging and find it difficult to mingle.”

Teachers also want help in tackling situations where a child’s reactions could be misinterpreted because of cultural differences. Salako said: “An Irish child will make eye contact with their teacher without any problem, but an African child, out of respect, will not look at an adult. So on the one hand you have a child at home being told by their parents, ‘Don’t look at me when I am talking to you’, and then in a school, ‘Look at me when I am talking to you’.”

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