The European Commission has approved just under £1.5 million as funding for a pilot project to introduce modern languages to primary school children, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, announced yesterday.
The project, which will include in-career development for teachers, is a two-year programme which will get under way in January. A co-ordinator and project leaders will be appointed before the end of the year and 200 schools will be selected from January to take part. It is expected that it will eventually involve a minimum of 350 teachers.
The scheme will be collaborative in development, with curriculum aspects being developed during the two years by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann will evaluate the project. According to the Department, conservative estimates from two years ago show that at least 400 primary schools are currently providing some form of modern language teaching. Schools that already have successful modern language classes are likely to be selected initially to take part in the project. However, the intention is to choose schools from a wide range of backgrounds.
Those taking part will ultimately be selected according to criteria including size, gender balance and location. Gaelscoileanna and schools from disadvantaged areas will be represented also, according to the Minister. "You have to have that balance," he said.
"The aim is to foster positive attitudes to language learning at an early age," he said. The project also aims to encourage diversification in the range of languages being taught, to enable a greater number of children in a wider range of school types to study modern languages at primary level and to establish co-ordination between language teaching at first and second levels.
The languages to be targeted are French, Italian, Spanish, and German. One of these will be introduced to fifth and sixth classes. The £1.48 million project will involve providing students with 1.5 hours tuition each week.
An important part of the project will be to gather information from schools which have existing modern language programmes in place, according to Mr Sean O Fiachra, deputy chief inspector at the Department of Education and Science. "We don't know the precise number of schools that teach continental languages. It's an important part of the project to get that information," he said.