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<h1>Languages and university entry </h1>
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<p><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/languages-and-university-entry-1.2132127#"><span content="2015-03-10T01:08">Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 01:08</span></a></p>
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<p><strong>First published:</strong> <span content="2015-03-10T01:08">Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 01:08</span></p>
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<p class="">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 <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/state-s-language-policy-is-costing-its-citizens-jobs-senator-says-1.2128096">interventions</a>
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.</p><p class="">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.</p><p class="">There is virtually unanimous agreement that school-leavers and graduates in Ireland need more language skills and not fewer. </p>
<p class="">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. </p><p class="">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. </p><p class="">In the
interim, however, to act in this arbitrary and precipitous manner could
have the most serious of consequences in post-primary schools.</p><p class="">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.</p><p class="">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. </p><p class="">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. </p><p class="">This must not be allowed to happen and the Minister for Education must intervene to stop this appalling proposal. – Yours, etc,</p><p class="">BARRY HENNESSY,</p><p class="">Donabate, </p><p class="">Co Dublin. </p>
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