Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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860. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to include Mandarin Chinese as a leaving certificate subject; the reason this has not already happened; if discussions within her Department to do so have taken place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20244/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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There are no plans currently to incorporate Chinese as a subject into the Leaving Certificate curriculum. As part of junior cycle reform, schools are be able to include a short course in Chinese language and culture, prepared by the NCCA, in their junior cycle programme, if they so wish. There is also currently a Transition Year module on Chinese, which was taken by 4,820 students in 2014.

The Department is currently considering the findings obtained following a consultation process based on a policy document on Languages in Education published last year. A forum on the findings was held in February last. Amongst the topics being considered in this context is the possibility of offering additional languages for the Leaving Certificate. It is expected that a languages strategy will be finalized in the second half of this year.