Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 171: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to review the decision to abolish the modern languages in primary schools initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41149/11]

Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 220: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse the decision to abolish the modern languages in primary schools initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41403/11]

Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 221: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his reasons for abolishing the modern languages in primary schools initiative.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41404/11]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 230: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will review the €2 million cuts to the language support in primary schools (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1000/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 171, 220, 221 and 230 together.

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 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. It has not been possible for other schools to join the pilot project for a number of years and the way in which it operated was not capable of being rolled out to all 3,200 primary schools. 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.