Minister of Education - Le Club Francais

Mr J Spratt asked the Minister of Education if she will acknowledge the work of Le Club Francais in delivering French and Spanish language lessons to primary school children; and if her Department would consider working with Le Club Francais in the future.

(AQW 3264/10)

Minister of Education: I believe passionately about the importance of giving our children and young people the opportunity to learn another language in school here, so I fully acknowledge the work Le Club Francais does in delivering French and Spanish to our young people.

However, the Department of Education does not prescribe or recommend the materials to be used by schools in the teaching of any subject in the curriculum and the choice of resource materials to assist teachers in delivering the curriculum is a matter for each individual school.

The revised curriculum provides schools with greater flexibility to offer subjects that meet the needs of their pupils. At primary level, there is a range of existing good practice in language teaching here, and in order to encourage primary schools to offer the learning of an additional language, I introduced the Primary Languages Programme, which provides peripatetic support for primary schools wishing to deliver Spanish, Irish and Polish.