Alan Dillon
Question:208. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Education what grants are available for students attending modern foreign language courses; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8885/24]
View answerTuesday, 27 February 2024
Questions (208)
Written answers
I can advise the Deputy that Languages Connect, Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017 – 2026, aims to increase and diversify the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Post Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI) is fully funded by the Department and charged with implementing a wide range of actions under Languages Connect.
PPLI provides free Saturday morning classes in a range of foreign languages to Leaving Certificate students whose school does not have the student numbers to warrant timetabled classes. The number of students enrolled in these classes in 2023/24 are as follows:
|
JAPANESE |
RUSSIAN |
CHINESE |
POLISH |
PORTUGUESE |
LITHUANIAN |
ROMANIAN |
|
113 |
84 |
101 |
161 |
40 |
27 |
120 |
PPLI provides funding for a range of initiatives including language summer camps, school exchanges, foreign language library books and language upskilling for teachers. Some funding is also provided to the Latvian community to provide online Latvian classes, and to some schools to provide out-of-curriculum Romanian.
A wide range of other supports are provided to schools to support the teaching and learning of foreign languages and the diversification of foreign languages in school: ppli.ie/
Some of the key achievements to date under Languages Connect include:
- The introduction of four new curricular languages for Leaving Certificate (Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Polish)
- The inclusion of foreign languages in the Primary Curriculum Framework. Work is now underway on the development of the specification for introduction in primary schools from September 2025.
- The roll out of the Say Yes to Languages sampler module at primary level. This is an eight week module where primary schools can select the language depending on their demographic and resources. A grant of up to €1,600 is available for participating schools of which there are circa. 1,200 in 2023/24 (year 3).
- An annual #ThinkLanguages event for Transition Year students, promoting the benefits of foreign language learning and celebrating the languages and cultural diversity within the school community. Circa. 15,000 TY students participated in the 2023/24 week long event.
- An increase in the number of Foreign Language Assistants appointed to post primary schools from 110 in 2016/17 to 181 in 2023/24. This will increase to 220 under Languages Connect.
- The establishment of new teacher education and language upskilling programmes including one for Spanish in UCC.
The Department of Education is committed to delivering leaving certificate examinations in all EU languages in accordance with Article 149 of the Treaty of Nice. A range of curricular languages are currently available at Leaving Certificate level including: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and since September 2020 - Mandarin Chinese, Lithuanian, Polish and Portuguese in accordance with the Languages Connect strategy.
Students are also able to take an exam in a non-curricular EU language in accordance with the criteria set out at www.examinations.ie/?l=en&mc=ex&sc=sp. In the 2023 Leaving Certificate Exams, 704 students registered to sit a non-curricular language exam in 15 other non-curricular EU languages.
In recognition of the current situation regarding Ukrainian, students who have moved to Ireland due to the ongoing conflict in their home country, the first cohort of students will be able to sit exams in Ukranian as a non-curricular leaving certificate language subject in June 2025.