Madam, - While I fully agree with Ibec's support for the cause of learning Spanish in school (June 21st), Caroline Nash's comments, as quoted, focused exclusively on the provision for modern languages in primary schools.
Your report omitted to mention that, since 2000, the Department of Education and Science, through the Post-Primary Languages Initiative, has promoted and supported diversification in language learning at second level, the target languages being Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Russian. The interim report of this initiative shows that, in 2003, there were already 18,859 students taking Spanish, as opposed to 14,821 in 2000.
It will take a few years before these figures translate into Leaving Certificate candidates, but the upward trend is already marked at Junior Certificate level.
Ibec has generously supported a small scholarship scheme established by the Post-Primary Languages Initiative and the Trinity Access Programme which, over the past three years, has enabled 18 students from disadvantaged schools to attend summer language courses in Spain and Italy.
Japanese, meanwhile, is now being taught as a Transition Year module in over 60 schools country-wide, with increasing numbers of students opting to take that language for Leaving Certificate. - Yours, etc,
BRÍDÍN GILROY, National Co-ordinator, Post-Primary Languages Initiative, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin 9.