Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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430. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of optional language subjects currently on the Leaving Certificate curriculum; the number of these which are taken as non-curricular; the number which are examinable under the Leaving Certificate; and her plans to include other languages such as Romanian to the curriculum. [62847/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that there are currently 14 foreign language options on the curriculum for the Leaving Certificate:

Ancient Greek, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

In accordance with Article 149 of the Nice Treaty, 15 non-curricular EU languages are also available for examination at Leaving Certificate for students meeting certain criteria set out by the State Examinations Commission. These languages include: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Maltese, Modern Greek, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Swedish.

Having regard to Ireland's clearly articulated national response to the war in Ukraine, and the principles that have been developed for the school sector which are informed by that position, it is considered appropriate that Ukrainian as a non-curricular language for Leaving Certificate would be developed by the State Examinations Commission for the State examinations 2025. A total of 549 students received a grade.

The model for the non-curricular language examination papers is based on the First Foreign Language final written paper of the European Baccalaureate.

The curricula for all existing Leaving Certificate subjects and modules, across all three Leaving Certificate programmes, are currently being redeveloped with updated curricula to be introduced in annual tranches from 2025. A total of five annual tranches are planned with teaching and learning commencing in the fifth tranche in 2029.

There is currently no plan to introduce any other new language subject as a curricular subject into Senior Cycle under the redevelopment programme.

Introduction of new Leaving Certificate subjects under Senior Cycle Redevelopment

Under the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Programme, announced in March 2022, two new Leaving Certificate subjects, Drama, Film and Theatre Studies (DFTS), and Climate Action and Sustainable Development (CASD) have been introduced in 100 network schools from September 2025.

Having regard to Ireland's clearly articulated national response to the war in Ukraine, and the principles that have been developed for the school sector which are informed by that position, it is considered appropriate that Ukrainian as a non-curricular language for Leaving Certificate would be developed by the State Examinations Commission for the State examinations 2025. A total of 549 students received a grade.

The actual development of a new or revised subject specification takes around two years; with associated Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) to commence in the academic year prior to teaching and learning commencing in schools. This means that the total time required to introduce a subject from the time its development commences until it is taught in schools is a minimum of three years.

In determining the new subjects to be introduced under the redevelopment programme, a number of relevant factors were taken into account. These included consideration of:

• subjects that were suggested by students, teachers and others during the NCCA’s Senior Cycle Review, which ran from 2016-2020
• anticipated level of interest
• capacity to develop and deliver new subjects in addition to the revision of existing curricula