Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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547. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if sitting the Mandarin exam at leaving certificate level is limited to students attending pilot schools. [52916/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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It is open to any school to offer Mandarin Chinese as an optional Leaving Certificate curricular subject. Schools are supported in this regard by Post Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI), which is charged under the Languages Connect strategy to provide support for foreign languages education in Ireland, predominantly at post-primary level.

Any student who is studying Mandarin Chinese for Leaving Certificate, either inside or outside of their school, can register through their school to sit Mandarin Chinese as part of their Leaving Certificate, in the same way as they register for any other subject. Entry to the examination is not restricted to students in those schools that are currently offering the subject.

The Rules and Programme for Secondary Schools require that in order to be eligible for admission to the established Leaving Certificate Examinations a pupil must have followed an approved established Leaving Certificate course as a recognised senior cycle pupil for not less than two years.

For individuals who are not recognised pupils of a post primary school, they may be admitted to the Leaving Certificate examination as an external candidate in accordance with the conditions set out by the State Examinations Commission for External Candidates: .

By way of further information, PPLI is organising a series of information sessions regarding the new Leaving Certificate Mandarin Chinese specification. These sessions aim to help students and parents to become familiar with the curriculum specification and identify suitable supports for its study, especially for those who do not have access to the curriculum in school at the moment. These online information sessions will likely take place between November and December 2021 and interest can be registered through the following link:www.surveymonkey.com/r/GH87MWS.