Vol. 409 No. 8
12 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
14 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
45 Mr. Flanagan asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
46 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
48 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
49 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
54 Mr. D'Arcy asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
55 Mr. Flanagan asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
57 Mr. Lowry asked the Minister for Education if she will outline (1) the total amount of money received by her Department under the current Lingua Programme, (2) the number of schools which have received direct grants under the programme to date and (3) the number of schools which will receive grant aid during the next school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 14, 45, 46, 48, 49, 54, 55 and 57 together.
No money has yet been received by my Department under the Lingua Programme. However, for exchanges of young people in post-compulsory education and training £10,000 is expected to be received shortly by the Youth Exchange Bureau. This will be used to give financial assistance to 100 students from seven schools and FÁS community training workshop to participate in two week exchanges with partner institutions in France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
In the 1991-92 school year beginning in September about £69,000 will be available to the Youth Exchange Bureau for exchanges of young people and about £59,000 will be available to Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann for the in-service training abroad of language teachers. It is not possible at this stage to state the number of schools or teachers that will benefit in the coming school year because the planning is ongoing, but that will be known shortly.
In addition to these amounts the Higher Education Authority received £23,000 in the present academic year and will receive about £168,000 in the 1991-92 year to assist in the mobility costs of language students at third level to allow them to spend a period of study abroad. My Department will also shortly receive about £38,000 to assist generally in the implementation of the programme. Accordingly the total amounts available under the programme in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 school years will be £71,000 and £296,000 respectively.
I welcome the Minister's reply, particularly in view of the fact that the Lingua Programme has had several false starts. Is the Minister not somewhat disappointed with the amounts in view of the fact that this programme was heralded as a major initiative and a lot of EC money was to be provided for the promotion of modern language tuition and so on? In view of the fact that 100 students will benefit at second level, can the Minister give a guarantee that these students should be from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds and that priority and precedence should be given to them?
I do not have the precise details but the minimum number for this year is 100 pupils. The programme for the year 1991-92 will be of much greater benefit for both students and teachers. It is estimated that funding for in-service training of teachers and the exchanges of young people will be increased from the present levels. A commitment has been given to increase the funding. The planning committee have been set up and they will take decisions on the geographical spread of schools and the balance as between different types of schools and vocational training institutions, as well as the linguistic balance between French, German, Italian and Spanish or in-service training of teachers and exchanges of young people in post-compulsory education and training. I agree with Deputy Higgins that the Lingua Programme was a long time coming.
In deciding where the money is directed, recognition might be given to the fact that we seem to have an extremely limited range of second level modern language choice. I am talking particularly about the over-emphasis on French. For example, of the 841 schools providing modern languages, 700 provide French, in the region of 100 provide German, 85 provide Spanish and 13 provide Italian. In spending the money we should try to achieve a greater choice of modern languages in our second level schools.
I regret that the Deputy has the wrong statistics but I will send him the correct ones. At present over 400 of the 800 second level schools provide both French and German and it is anticipated that that number will increase to 500 in September next. The Deputy may be using earlier statistics but I will send him the correct figures. In the last 12 months in particular I was amazed at the huge increase in the number of second level schools providing these languages. I anticipate that in a couple of years' time maximum numbers of schools will be offering two foreign languages as well as Irish and English. On the Deputy's supplementary question about the over-emphasis on French, I do not know how that position arose. Perhaps it was due to historical reasons but for many years there has been a great emphasis on French in the schools.
It is due to the nuns. They favour French.
There is now a great take up of the German language and hopefully following on that there will be a greater take up of Spanish and Italian.
