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A gaelscoil (Plural: gaelscoileanna) is an Irish-speaking school often also co-educational usually found in Ireland. Irish is the working language for these schools, so they offer a quicker and more comprehensive education in Irish. Most of the schools are under the patronage of Foras Pátrunachta na Scoileanna LánGhaeilge. Some gaelscoileanna for the deaf also exist, as Irish sign language is, like American and British sign langages, a separate language.
The idea of gaelscoils (or properly called gaelscoileanna) was born around the turn of the century as part of the Gaelic Revival. Bilinguality from an early age is recommended by some linguists, as it helps children become more adept at picking up languages.
Nowadays in modern Ireland, many people send their children to these schools, as they would not otherwise get to speak Irish. Ireland is mostly English-speaking, though non-gaelscoil schools also have Irish as a mandatory subject. There are both Irish-speaking primary and secondary schools, called bunscoileanna and méanscoileanna respectively, these are the lower two tiers of education in Ireland before college (coláiste) and university (ollscoil) - third level education.
See also
List of gaelscoileanna
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