John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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106. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of Irish post-primary schools teaching Mandarin; if there is a strategy in place to grow this number; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45175/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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There are a range of foreign languages available on the curriculum in schools - French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic. Mandarin Chinese is not currently on the curriculum.

It is not possible in the current budgetary situation to expand the range of languages available in the post primary curriculum. However there is a Chinese module for transition year which has a language element. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment are currently developing a short course in Mandarin for the new Junior Cycle. This course should be available from September 2014.