Fine Gael Leaving Cert policy puts the future of Irish at risk

WE are asking Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, to reverse the party’s stated policy of making Irish an optional subject at Leaving Certificate level.

All available evidence points to the failure of such a policy. In England, when languages were made optional at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level, the amount of pupils undertaking language subjects dropped dramatically from 78% in 2001 to 44% in 2009.

In fact there would have been a much larger decline except for the fact that many private schools chose to continue with their policy of mandatory language study.