Spanish teachers are preparing to swing into action to highlight the worrying fall-off in the number of students who are taking this subject to Leaving Cert exam level.

A move is on also to change the perception that Spanish is a just "fun" language only used at holiday time. Teachers of Spanish are concerned that the numbers of students taking Spanish have not substantially increased in recent years and "we are far behind both French and German", says Ann Harrow, president of Spanish Teachers' Association. Students and parents, she points out, do not realise that by the year 2010, it is expected that 400 million people world-wide, including 80 million in the US, will speak Spanish. By choosing Spanish, students can improve their job prospects, she says. "Also we would like to upgrade the image of Spanish from a "fun" language to be used on holidays to a serious language that is used in the business world."

As part of this campaign to highlight the importance and significance of the language, two teachers, Claire Cunningham and Lorna Wilson, called a meeting during the summer and formed The Forum for Spanish. "While the Minister for Education may do something to improve things in the schools, we feel that we need to talk directly to parents and students to tell them of the advantages of studying Spanish."