Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail – Education and the Mòd
September and October are the mad months in my diary. Why? I am responsible for the organisation and staging of Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail (The Royal National Mòd) – Scotland’s premier festival of Gaelic Lanuage, Music and Culture.
The Mòd provides our wonderful Gaelic language, music and culture with a huge annual opportunity to showcase to a national, and international audience. We have travelled a long way in the past two decades. Gaelic Medium Education was in its infancy two decades ago and has continued to grow steadily. It provides us with hope for the future of our language and also provides the Children who go through Gaelic Medium education with considerable career opportunities. Bi-lingualism is a great asset to everyone and is to be encouraged in a multi-cultural and confident Scotland. Speaking two languages provides opportunites; removes barriers and engenders social understanding and tolerance in our modern society.
Gaelic is a vital piece of the jigsaw that is modern Scotland. It helped to mould our nation into what it is today. Gaelic education is vitally important to the future of the language. Through education our language will prosper. I am passionate about the language and culture that surrounded me when I grew up in Lewis. The annual celebration of our Language, Music and Culture that is the Royal National Mòd is a vital component of the overall mix. It is a wonderful platform for Gaels and it is a hugely demanding time for me personally.
John Morrison / Iain Moireasdan – Chief Executive / Ard-Oifigeir, An Comunn Gaidhealach (organisers of The Royal National Mod)
http://acgmod.org/
3 comments
i have great praise for Gaelic Medium Education and all my chidren had wonderful expereinces at primay school. Where the whole system seems to break down particulalry in our case recently is the lack of secondary Gaelic teachers and the marginalisaiton of Gaelic within the secondary school. Children have come from a total immersion system to a few periods of Gaelic per week. The whole cultural aspect seems to be lost and it becomes just another subjtect.
I’m considering making a Gaelic version of my recently released numeracy DVD, and would appreciate any suggestions of a supportive vehicle that would help make this happen.
We took our 3 children to this years MOD and found it a fantastic experience. Must be easier for Gaelic Medium to work when you are surrounded by it as it is on Lewis and Harris. I am in North Lanarkshire and although it’s not in the shops and streets, our council do a great job to ensure that our children are achieving fluency. We do have issues with availability of teachers at times as there seem to be no supply teachers to bring in.
With one child in High School I agree somewhat with edu223 although the number of subjects in NL school is high compared to many areas.
I’d like to see what the plan is for the future in increasing the supply to schools with the kind of quality Gaelic speaking teachers we are lucky to have now. I’m down the road now but it must be a worry for the parents of younger children that their childen will only get Gaelic speaker part time. Thanks to all who organised MOD 2011 and look forward to Dunoon and Paisley