Downgrading Irish wrong option

Matt Cooper’s suggestion (Opinion, Feb 24)) that making Irish optional for the Leaving Cert would improve the teaching of German is not well-founded.

When he correctly praises Nordic countries’ language teaching, he neglects to mention that ‘compulsory’ Finnish and Swedish are central to primary and post-primary education in Finland. Students are also expected to, and do, acquire two additional languages.

A people with little regard for their own language are unlikely to respect the languages of others. Irish people, according to the European Commission, are the lowest achievers in 2nd and 3rd language acquisition. Irish medium schools buck this trend.