Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to consider the inclusion of basic sign language on the primary and secondary school curricula to enable more people to communicate with the deaf community. [14538/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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A new course in Irish Sign Language (ISL) has been prepared by the Post-Primary Languages Initiative (PPLI), a project of my Department. This 100 hour course is based on the Generic Short Course in Modern Languages, which was in turn developed by the PPLI using the new Framework for Junior Cycle (2015) and the Junior Cycle Short Courses Draft Handbook 'Developing Short Courses in Junior Cycle' prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

The course provides the 'learning statements' and key skills which all short courses are based upon. In this course, the emphasis is on developing communication skills in ISL at level A1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Schools can choose to provide this short course as part of their Junior Cycle programme.