'Urgent' action needed to reverse decline in pupils studying languages

Exam figures show the number of pupils taking modern languages at GCSE have fallen by more than 40% in the past 15 years

More than 70 Irish teachers and speakers have warned of a "critical decline" in pupils studying Irish and other languages in schools.

They are calling for the Department of Education (DE) to recommend that all pupils should study a language at GCSE.

It is currently not compulsory.

Signatories to the open letter from the Irish language body, Gael Linn, said "urgent and decisive action" was needed to reverse a decline in pupils studying languages.

A survey carried out by the BBC in 2019 found that more than a third of schools in Northern Ireland had stopped offering French, German or Spanish at GCSE in the previous five years.

Separate exam figures also showed the number of pupils taking modern languages at GCSE had fallen by more than 40% in the past 15 years.

A more recent study from the British Council said that teaching children modern languages at primary school "all but collapsed" during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A scheme to teach primary pupils additional languages was scrapped by DE due to financial cuts in 2015.

There are only two Irish-medium post-primary schools in Northern Ireland

The open letter from Gael Linn said there had been a fall of more than 40% in the number of pupils studying Irish at GCSE in the past decade and a half, from 2,665 students in 2007, to 1,519 students in 2021.

"Over 42% of the pupils taking GCSE Irish come from Irish-medium schools and, welcome though this is, it conceals a stark reality," the letter said.

"The study of the Irish language in English-medium schools is quickly approaching 50% of the uptake it once achieved."

The letter said the picture was "even more worrying at A-Level" despite a slight rise in numbers in recent years.

There are only two Irish-medium post-primary schools in Northern Ireland - Coláiste Feirste in Belfast and Gaelcholáiste Dhoire in Dungiven - though some other schools have Irish-medium units.

However, there has been a rise in the number of pupils in Irish-medium education in recent years with more than 7,000 in 2020-21.

The signatories to the Gael Linn letter include a number of teachers of Irish in post-primary schools in Northern Ireland, as well as academics, language activists and authors.

They suggest a number of actions to reverse the decline in language learning.

Those include that the Department of Education "recommends that all pupils take an additional language of their choice (French, German, Irish, Spanish) at GCSE in all post primary schools".

They also call for a new "primary modern languages programme, which is effective and based on best practice" and "a new fit for purpose languages strategy to be developed and implemented for all sectors".

They have also called for the appointment of an Irish language commissioner "with staffing provision to assist with Irish language education across all sectors".

An Irish language commissioner was one of the measures agreed in the New Decade New Approach (NDNA) agreement but the bulk of the NDNA measures on languages are still to be introduced.

"Teachers and advocates of Irish have long recognised these problems and others but have also presented solutions," the letter concluded.

"We now require the will and resources to improve these issues which have been reducing the uptake of Irish and other languages for too long now."