Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Education what steps have been taken by his Department to give effect to the provisions in The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022.
Minister of Education: My Department has a well-established provision for inclusion of national and cultural principles in relation to its functions and in the schools’ curriculum.
The Department’s language policy sets out the administrative services which people can expect from the Department in Irish, Ulster Scots or any other language and informs those who wish to use these languages how they may communicate with us. This policy can be found on the Department’s website at DE language policy | Department of Education (education-ni.gov.uk). The Department is also represented on the Languages Strategy Cross Departmental Group led by the Department of Communities.
In addition, my Department already has a statutory duty to deliver Irish Medium education with Irish being an established language subject in the curriculum.
The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 at Part 1(5) amended the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 to insert a duty on the Department to encourage and facilitate the use and understanding of Ulster Scots in the education system. My Department will facilitate this, and will also work with the Irish Language Commissioner and the Commissioner for the Ulster Scots and the Ulster British tradition when appointed.
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