Sir, – I refer to the article “Irish Students lost in translation” (Áine Kerr, Education Today, November 8th). While I agree with the broad sentiment expressed in this report, ie that Irish students are trailing their international counterparts with regard to fluency in foreign languages and the negative impact this will have on our competitiveness over time, it is a pity that the reporter seems to believe we should reduce the priority given to the French language as a means of re-orientating our education system towards other languages as “France is not one of our main trading partners”.
In fact, France is our fourth largest trading partner overall and our fourth largest market for inward tourists, our third largest market for indigenous exports, our second largest market for food exports and our single largest overseas market for lamb and seafood exports. I think the fundamental problem we should be highlighting here is our low ranking in foreign language proficiency as opposed to the predominance of one foreign language in our education system over others. – Yours, etc,