The employers' body, IBEC, has expressed serious concern about a drop in the number of Leaving Cert students doing French and German this year.
It said the declining numbers were worrying at a time when ability in foreign languages was becoming highly important. Its education spokeswoman, Ms Caroline Nash, said the promotion of foreign languages should be a priority for the new Minister for Education.
"Most EU countries introduce the learning of foreign languages in the primary system when children are capable of assimilating new languages at an amazingly fast rate. While some steps have been taken to introduce foreign languages in the primary system, this has been on an ad-hoc basis," she said.
IBEC has previously warned about the declining interest among students in science, but in recent months its attention has also shifted to problems with foreign languages.
Ms Nash added: "Everyone who travels from the English-speaking world for business or pleasure knows the acute sense of embarrassment when others can converse and joke in our language while we can barely struggle in theirs. Clearly, then, the development of our export potential with other European countries will be greatly enhanced by improving students uptake of and fluency in foreign languages.
"This can best be achieved by children attaining fluency by the end of primary-level education and moving away from our reliance on developing language fluency in the Leaving."
On the general importance of the exam, she said education was no longer a process of "front-loading knowledge" in the first 14 to 18 years of a young person's life.
"The world of work demands an ongoing and relentless pursuit of knowledge. Young people must realise the Leaving is only a milestone in a continuing process of lifelong learning," she said.
Meanwhile the Teachers Union of Ireland president, Mr John MacGabhann, said students should try to ignore the euphoria surrounding World Cup games.
"Tape the games and watch them later," he suggested. He appealed to those who have sought to have exams rescheduled to keep a sense of perspective.
"Their misguided efforts merely increase the pressure on students who have known and accepted all along that the exams would be conducted at the normal times," he said.