Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 13 Feb 1990

Vol. 395 No. 6

Written Answers. - European Languages Leaving Certificate Statistics.

Enda Kenny

Ceist:

187 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Education the number and percentage of second level schools offering (a) French, (b) German and (c) Spanish to leaving certificate level in the past three years; the number and percentage of students who sat for and achieved grade D or higher in each such language; and the way in which this related and compares in general to other EC country standards.

Minister for Education (Mrs. O'Rourke)

The information required by the Deputy is given in the following tabular form.

Number of Schools Providing the Stated Subject to Leaving Certificate for the years indicated.*

	1985-86	1986-87	1987-88
French	732 (94.2%)	735 (94.6%)	741 (95.0%)
German	164 (21.1%)	175 (22.5%)	178 (22.8%)
Spanish	83 (10.7%)	77 (9.9%)	85 (10.9%)

* The most recent year for which data are available concerning the number of schools providing a particular subject is 1987-88. The figures in brackets refer to the percentage of schools providing the stated subject.

Number of Candidates who took the Higher Paper in the Stated Subject at Leaving Certificate and the Percentage of those Candidates who obtained Grade D or Higher †

	1987	1988	1989
French	14,829 (95.4%)	15,199 (94.2%)	15,986 (95.5%)
German	1,505 (97.1%)	1,577 (98.7%)	1,891 (95.6%)
Spanish	466 (94.4%)	572 (96.3%)	559 (96.8%)

Number of Candidates who took the Lower Paper in the Stated Subject at Leaving Certificate and the Percentage of those Candidates who obtained Grade D or Higher †

	1987	1988	1989
French	15,511 (85.9%)	16,610 (88.1%)	17,874 (87.0%)
German	668 (95.5%)	666 (91.7%)	702 (93.7%)
Spanish	358 (83.8%)	384 (90.1%)	424 (88.2%)

† Figures in brackets refer to the percentage of candidates in each subject at the level specified who obtained Grade D or higher. Data for all three years refer to school candidates only. Data for 1987 and 1988 were supplied by the Central Applications Office and are exclusive of candidates who obtained No Grade. Data for 1989 were compiled by my Department's Examinations Branch and do not include a small number of modifications based on the appeals.

With regard to the Deputy's request for comparative international data regarding the number of schools providing the languages in question and the results obtained by pupils in the various State examinations, such data are not immediately available. I have provided a table underneath which gives details for certain countries of the number and percentage of pupils studying French, German and Spanish as foreign languages at senior cycle.

Number and percentage of Pupils studying French, German and Spanish as Foreign Languages at Senior Cycle‡.

	Year of Reference	French	German	Spanish
Germany	1982/83	364,200 (26.1%)	—	21,600 (1.6%)
France	1982/83	—	501,300 (24.6%)	389,900 (19.1%)
Italy	1977/78	864,000 (37.7%)	202,900 (8.9%)	20,000 (0.9%)
Luxembourg	1982/83	9,200 (87.6%)	9,100 (86.7%)	300 (2.9%)
Ireland	1987/88	67,449 (62.3%)	5,341 (4.9%)	1,948 (1.8%)
Denmark	1975/76	45,800 (31.6%)	24,800 (17.1%)	—

‡ In any interpretation of the above data, it should be noted that English is the principal foreign language studied at Senior Cycle in Germany, France and Italy where 73.2%, 75% and 63.8% of pupils, respectively, study the subject.