Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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29. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans for a new foreign languages strategy; how he proposes to accommodate the needs of new communities who are struggling to maintain their native languages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18254/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department is working on a Foreign Language Strategy and intends to complete it by the autumn. The Strategy will consider foreign languages from the post-primary sector upwards.

The strategy will take into account the findings of a public consultative process with education stakeholders held in 2014. Following the analysis of the submissions received there were two further consultation events in 2015, one concentrating on schools and the second seeking input from stakeholders in the higher and further education sectors along with industry.

Over 10% of our population are immigrants from over 200 countries with their many languages. Our immigrants provide Ireland with a social, cultural and national resource that we welcome and want to nurture.

For Junior Cycle, students may study French, German, Spanish and Italian. A new specification for modern languages is being finalised by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) which includes these four languages and this framework could be used for other languages into the future.

With the introduction of the new Framework for Junior Cycle in 2014, schools may now also offer their students short courses (of 100 hours duration) in foreign languages. A short course in Chinese language and culture (as a foreign language) has been prepared by the NCCA. Short courses are also available in two other languages of our new communities, Polish (for heritage speakers) to stimulate and maintain students' interest in the Polish language and culture and to nurture their desire to maintain proficiency in their Polish. Russian (as a foreign language) is also available. It is the eighth most spoken language in the world. These latter two languages courses have been developed by my Department's Post Primary Languages Initiative (PPLI). The PPLI is also in discussion with the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Romanian embassies in relation to developing short courses in these languages.

At Senior Cycle, in addition to French, German, Spanish and Italian, schools may also provide Leaving Certificate choices to their students which include Russian, Japanese and Arabic. In addition, the State Examinations Commission provides Leaving Certificate examinations in 'non-curricular EU languages'. Students who are from EU member states may present their home language as a non-curricular subject at Leaving Certificate, if they comply with certain criteria. For example, the non-curricular language must be their mother tongue.

The future of foreign languages, including the non-curricular languages, in the post-primary sector is currently under consideration as the Foreign Languages Strategy is being finalised.

It is also important that immigrant students gain proficiency in the language of instruction in the school they attend. Alleviation measures were put in place in the 2012/13 school year for schools with a high concentration of students requiring language support. These schools will continue to receive this allocation in 2016/17. Schools where a significant number of the total enrolment is made up of language support students with less than B1 (Level 3) proficiency can lodge an appeal for a review of their proposed allocation.

In the higher education sector, the different institutions provide courses in a number of the new communities languages. These can be taken as core subjects or in combination with a range of other disciplines such as business and the sciences.