Budget 2012 –
As part of spending cuts in Education – the government today announced that it was abolishing the initiative on teaching modern languages in primary schools.
This was a pilot scheme across about 500 schools in Ireland.
Recently the Royal Irish Academy recommended that the pilot initiative on modern languages in primary school should be adopted in the mainstream curriculum.
IBEC head of education policy Tony Donohoe also recently said: “If we neglect to ensure adequate availability of foreign language skills in Ireland, the opportunities of the global market will not be realised. We must continue to develop our foreign language skills to ensure that we are not at a competitive disadvantage in terms of our ability to attract foreign direct investment of the future.”