Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills with respect to the abolishment of the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative Budget, if he will detail the basis for this decision; the total saving to the State arising from the decision; the number of teachers who will lose their jobs as a result of this and a breakdown of the numbers of schools affected by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40863/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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As part of the Budget 2012 decisions that have been announced, the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative will be cease at the end of the 2011/2012 school year. The €2.5million in savings from this measure will go towards the cost of implementing the new National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, which is a key commitment in the Programme for Government.

Since becoming Minister for Education and Skills, I have spoken repeatedly about the need to raise educational standards. In terms of curriculum reform, the priorities in the period ahead are to strengthen achievement in literacy and numeracy, to implement reforms in maths, Irish and science, and to progress junior cycle reforms.

The Modern Languages Initiative was a pilot scheme involving approximately 550 schools and has been operating since 1998. There are over 270 part-time tutors employed by the primary schools to deliver language tuition. The tutors are paid by school Boards of Management from grants issued by my Department. The employment of tutors under the Modern Languages Initiative by these schools will cease at the end of the current school year.

The decision to end the scheme was based in part on policy advice from a 2008 Report by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), which has identified serious issues with curricular overload at primary level. The NCCA's advice recommended that Modern languages should not be part of the Primary School Curriculum as an additional and separate subject at present.

The primary curriculum is currently being reviewed by the NCCA in the context of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. The focus of the review will be on how best to enhance children's learning in these areas, provide a clearer delineation of the learning outcomes required, and integrate into the infant cycle the learning experiences from Aistear, the curriculum framework for early childhood education.

At post primary level, targeted support is provided to schools to enable them to diversify language provision with a particular focus on Spanish, Japanese, Russian and Italian. Other languages taught at second level include French, German and Arabic.

Participation in foreign languages, relative to other subjects, remains high. The vast majority of students are studying two languages and are therefore developing core skills which will serve them well in future language learning over the lifespan, and there are many opportunities outside the second level system for people to resume language learning.

It was not an easy decision to end this scheme, but I gave careful consideration to the concerns about the teaching of languages before taking it. The information requested by the Deputy in relation to participating schools, detailed by county, is set out in the following table: