Sir, – Three months after first reports emerged that the National University of Ireland was considering removing the requirement to present a foreign language for matriculation purposes, our politicians seem to have heard about it. The recent interventions in the Seanad, although welcome, have come late in the day ("Senators raise languages policy", March 5th). Indeed, if Senator Sean Barrett is correct, possibly too late.
One cannot help having some sympathy for the universities. On their shoulders lies the entire responsibility for the continued central role of language study in our schools. It should never have come to this. However, for them to commit such academic vandalism now, just as a national strategy in the area is finally being drawn up, is frankly inexcusable.
There is virtually unanimous agreement that school-leavers and graduates in Ireland need more language skills and not fewer.
Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan has herself acknowledged this and is reported to favour the use of bonus points to promote the study of languages.
It is not impossible that the final strategy which emerges following the recent public consultation run by her department will resolve matters to the satisfaction of the universities.
In the interim, however, to act in this arbitrary and precipitous manner could have the most serious of consequences in post-primary schools.
In my experience as a teacher of foreign languages, there can be a very poor appreciation of the value of foreign languages among pupils and indeed many parents. They are often seen as an emigration skill. Many teenagers have difficulty imagining a life very different to that which they currently lead and will often assert that they will never need to use the language after school. The fact that there are thousands of jobs in Ireland for which language skills are desirable or even necessary is simply not getting through in schools. Indeed, in its submission to the Department of Education on the foreign languages strategy, the employers’ group Ibec called for better awareness among guidance counsellors regarding the real need for language skills in Ireland today.
Should the universities be allowed to proceed in a vacuum, the uptake of languages at senior cycle will surely fall. Where this happens, higher-level and ordinary-level students will find themselves in mixed-ability classes where teachers will face an impossible task in catering to their very different needs.
The losers in this scenario will far exceed the winners and, in years to come, we will find ourselves akin to other English-speaking countries in seeking solutions to a severe skills shortage that was entirely preventable.
This must not be allowed to happen and the Minister for Education must intervene to stop this appalling proposal. – Yours, etc,
BARRY HENNESSY,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.