Irony about Tanya's language award from French
Because the education programme that was largely responsible for the honour was unceremoniously dumped by the Minister for Education and Skills in 2011.
Add to that the suggestion by Minister Richard Bruton last year that consideration might be given to teaching aspects of the primary curriculum through Irish and foreign languages, and a strange circle is closing. "We've been there already, we've done this, in more than 550 schools," Tanya says. "It's deeply infuriating."
Tanya is from Ballygar in Galway, and she always had a love of languages, especially French. "I had intended to study French and English, but then I came across Italian and loved it, so I did my degree in French and Italian and later my masters in Italian."
After a period lecturing in the French and Italian departments in NUI Galway and GMIT, then a stint with Cork College of Commerce, she moved to Kildare and got a job in the Department of Education and Skills, where she became involved in the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative. As Coordinator of the project, she found herself overseeing all aspects of the programme’s work. Introduced in September 1998, it involved the introduction of Italian, Spanish, German and French for fifth and sixth-class pupils, and at its peak was resourcing some 300 visiting teachers in schools across the country.
"It was such a wonderful project to be working on, and I was convinced of its value. I spent ten years in the Department, working under various ministers who were committed at various levels."
It wasn't expensive, just €2m a year covered it. And in performance terms it was successful. "The teachers I worked with were fantastic. They were the visionaries, really, they could see the difference it could make ... and they were doing all the extra work on top of everything else. We also got absolute support from the teacher training colleges, the cultural institutes, and also the government departments linked to it."
The programme also established important links with teacher training colleges in Spain, Germany and France, and overall it was working very well, especially considering it had not yet been incorporated as a mainstream element of the curriculum.
"When Ruairi Quinn became minister, we really thought this was the chance for that to happen. He was very pro-European, and we thought that after all these years he would be the one to bring our pilot phase to a glorious conclusion. Then, a few months into the job, he scrapped it."
Tanya and her team were devastated. They had about six months of lobbying before they literally had to just shut up shop. "We had amazing support. From business leaders, from colleges, educators. Some of our most fervent supporters were the Gaelscoil movement, they could see that learning another language was no problem for young pupils, and the programme could tip more people towards Irish."
But in spite of all this support, and a hugely positive meeting with the relevant Oireachtas Committee, the minister's decision wasn't for turning. "The reason given was that the money was to be used for the Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life 2011-2020 strategy which was launched that same year. That has since also been scrapped."
The team was disbanded, and Tanya was redeployed to the KWETB St Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous, where she teaches French and Italian, 'and I love it'. In one way it personally worked well, because her children were young and she didn't have to travel as much as before. "So they were delighted, and I love the school in Prosperous. But it would be wrong of me to say that I don't miss the project ... I do, I loved it, and it is so easy to go to work when you firmly believe in what you're doing. We knew we were doing the right thing."
Ireland is now in the position where multinationals here are crying out for people with language skills, and IBEC surveys show that graduates with appropriate levels of foreign language proficiency can earn up to 25pc more than those without. "And post-Brexit, we will be the only English-speaking country in the EU, so the opportunities are huge."
If the current government is serious about examining the possibilities of bringing European language teaching to the primary level, they will have to rebuild from the effects of the scrapping of that pilot scheme which had come so close to being mainstream.
It would in a sense be going over old ground, though Tanya is convinced it could be done, if politicians and the civil servants have the will and the vision to do it.
"There's capacity in the system, but they'd have to find the language teachers. We began the programme with what were called 'visiting teachers' each of whom would maybe have a number of schools in an area. But as the project went on, our ambition was to get proper classes safely integrated into the system. Because our programme was well run, we were able to provide training opportunities. If that were to be reinvigorated, and the resources provided in teacher training, I think it could be done quickly. But for me, I'm gutted that my own children are nearly out of primary school, and they have never had training in languages."
However it develops from here, and whomever does the developing of getting other languages into the primary level, at least Tanya Flanagan has been recognised for her work and that of her team in the idea's previous incarnation.
But is it a very Irish thing that the recognition has come from a state and government that is not her own?
This article was originally published in The Kildare Nationalist.
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