Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
317. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the foreign languages that will be prioritised as part of the languages education strategy, as per action 37 of the Action Plan for Jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13171/14]
View answerThere are a range of languages, including foreign languages, available for the Leaving Certificate in our schools. In addition to English and Irish; French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic are available. There are also a suite of non-curricular EU languages such as Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian which students from those EU countries can present for in the Leaving Certificate.
There is a Chinese module available as an option for the transition year programme. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is currently finalising a short course specification in Chinese language and culture for the new Junior Cycle. It will be finalised following an evaluation of submissions received as an outcome of a consultation process which finished in January. It should be available to schools in September. Schools and other organisations will be able to develop short courses in other languages for their junior cycle students based on a template developed by the NCCA. It is in the context of the above available suite of languages in the post-primary sector that the Department will be considering its language policy.
