Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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586. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of a roll-out of modern languages in the primary school curriculum pilot project. [46295/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI) was introduced into 550 primary schools in September 1998. It involved the introduction of Italian, Spanish, German and French for 5th and 6th classes. The MLPSI was a pilot scheme with an annual budget of approximately €2.5m.

The decision to end the MLPSI was taken in the context of a very challenging budgetary environment where difficult decisions had to be taken. There are no plans to revisit this decision.

A 2008 Report by the NCCA recommended against a further expansion of the MLPSI, citing issues of curriculum overload and difficulties relating to the replicability of the model across the system.