Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. In 2002 the EU set a target of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. In 2012 the Commission will review the progress made by member countries in this regard. When examined, Ireland may well be one of the member states scrutinised for non-implementation of the objectives set out by the Commission. Moreover, Ireland is not taking part in a current survey on language skills which will feed into a Europe-wide indicator on language competence at secondary level.

If Ireland is to have any aspiration of becoming one of the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economies in the world, we need to do much better in ensuring students can speak a greater range of languages. If we are truly to achieve greater social cohesion while also sustaining economic growth and the creation of jobs, education policy in general and language learning in particular are crucial. A Eurobarometer study in 2010 showed that 40% of recruiters in the industry sector highlighted the importance of language skills for future higher education graduates. Despite a slight uptake by Irish students of foreign languages in recent years, numbers are not increasing steadily enough to meet the demand from industry. There is a real risk that we are becoming over-reliant on the fact that in everyday work, English is our first and only language.

A recent document produced by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education concluded that modern business is facing a complex world where a lack of language skills can represent real barriers. At present there is high demand by SMEs across Europe for multilingual speakers. However, this demand is not being met by Irish educational institutions. Conducting a job search on the website www.jobs.ie clearly demonstrates the requirement in Ireland for modern languages such as German, French, Spanish and Italian in banking and finance, accounting, sales and marketing, programming and information technology, customer services, legal services, and the tourism and travel sectors. Despite this, an insufficient awareness of the importance of foreign language acquisition has caused a number of language programmes at third level to be closed, including degrees in software development with French or German. Students are not being sufficiently encouraged to study languages. Many science and engineering programmes do not offer students the option to take a language at any stage of their course, even though Irish graduates with such qualifications are in high demand across Europe, North America and elsewhere. Once a programme or even a module is dropped, it is very difficult to reinstate it for budgetary reasons. It is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy where subjects that are not encouraged are falling off the curriculum and their budgets disappearing in due course. In the case of some business degree programmes, as a direct result of modularisation, languages are competing as elective modules against other subjects and this competition is leading to a decrease in language take-up.

Foreign language skills must be promoted at third level as an essential component of science, engineering and business degrees, as well as of more traditional arts and humanities degrees. Work placement and study abroad programmes are experiencing cuts in funding. In response, the Government must campaign for greater funding to be allocated to work and study placement programmes, such as Leonardo and Erasmus. Furthermore, the modernisation of the leaving certificate science syllabi and other aspects of the leaving certificate programme, which are on the agenda for review of the Department of Education and Skills, must embrace foreign language acquisition as part of a strategy for economic recovery.

A report published in March by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs states:

Where job vacancies arise, jobseekers with third level qualifications coupled with work experience and foreign language skills were more likely to be in demand by employers. This underlines the need for jobseekers to engage in upskilling and for the education and training system to continually align with the skills needs of enterprise.

If Ireland wants to talk business, we must up our game in teaching languages. The time to act is now.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn. The Minister is aware of the importance of promoting competence in a range of languages to support business and employment opportunities in Ireland and abroad. However, there is a range of factors which must be considered in future decisions on language education at different levels and in the context of national economic and social priorities.

The primary school curriculum provides that pupils in Irish primary schools are taught two languages, Irish and English. Modern European languages are being taught at primary level in approximately 510 schools, or 15% of all schools, as part of an initiative that was introduced in 1998. In the participating schools pupils in fifth and sixth classes are taught one of four languages, namely, French, German, Italian and Spanish. However, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has recommended against a further expansion of this initiative at present, citing issues of curriculum overload and difficulties relating to the replicability of the model across the system. The NCCA advice is set out in the context of the changing landscape in Irish primary schools since the primary modern languages initiative was introduced in 1998. The key factors relate to the feedback on curriculum overload, challenges highlighted in reports on language learning in Irish and English, particular issues relating to literacy in disadvantaged schools, and the new needs which have emerged in providing additional English language support for newcomer children.

The Minister's top priority is to advance a national literacy and numeracy strategy in schools and to ensure more time is spent each day on developing literacy and numeracy skills. Given the difficult budgetary position and in the context of the advice from the NCCA, there will be no expansion of the modern languages initiative at primary level in the near term.

At post-primary level there is a range of foreign languages available on the curriculum in schools which includes French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic. A post-primary languages initiative is in place since 2000 with the objective of diversifying language provision in schools, focusing particularly on Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Russian. Some 81% of second level pupils study three languages - Irish, English and a continental language - to completion of upper second level, and more than 70% of schools offer two foreign languages or more. Indeed, given entrance requirements for many universities, studying a language is effectively an obligatory requirement, and this is an issue that may need reconsideration in the light of the economic imperative to encourage more students to study the physical sciences at senior cycle.

The Minister is aware of the demand for expansion of the range of languages on offer in post-primary schools, particularly Mandarin Chinese and Polish. However, sustained and continued cumulative reductions in public expenditure will be essential over the coming years to at least 2015, allied with further reductions in public sector numbers. Of necessity this will constrain the degree to which curricular reform can be promoted within schools. The Government is prioritising an agenda of curriculum reform in science and mathematics and improving innovation capacity in second level schools. The funds available in this difficult budgetary context do not allow for the inclusion of additional languages in the curriculum at present. However, the matter will be kept under review. To the extent that it is possible to expand provision into new languages, consideration will also have to be given to discontinuing some existing languages and re-orienting provision towards the languages of more strategically and economically important countries.

Students at third level have access to a wide range of foreign language courses which can be taken as core subjects or in combination with a range of other disciplines. In 2009-2010, 5,200 students were enrolled on programmes with a foreign language component, an overall increase of 16% since 2007. In the institute of technology sector, the IoT Languages Strategy Network is adopting a proactive approach to language learning and training and aims to foster greater inter-institutional collaboration for languages in the sector. The Erasmus study abroad programme has seen an increase in the numbers of students who have taken a study visit or placement abroad. In addition, a wide range of postgraduate and honours degree level programmes in Chinese is offered in the higher education sector.

The new higher education strategy emphasises that institutions must actively engage with stakeholders in the communities they serve and this will be a key priority for implementation. My Department and its agencies will continue to engage with industry to ensure the education system responds in so far as is possible to the emerging needs of enterprise in this area. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.