PPLI Audit of Foreign Languages - Flipbook - Page 32
Figure 24: Italian, Spanish and German at Leaving Certificate Established
The maps on page 30 show where Italian, Spanish and German are taught in the context of schools that responded
to the audit. As highlighted earlier, French is taught in almost every school in the country. This is reflected in the total
number of Leaving Certificate sits for modern languages in 2017: French 25,383; German 7,937; Spanish 7,085;
Italian 497; Russian 310; Japanese 296; Arabic 118. Only four counties have schools that offer Italian. Despite 2017
Leaving Certificate numbers for Spanish and German being reasonably similar, German 7,937 and Spanish 7,085,
there is no coverage of Spanish at all in eight counties represented in the audit and 25% or less in a further eight
counties. German is prevalent across the country.
Only 78% of Irish-medium schools offer French versus 95% of English-medium schools. Irish-medium schools are
also slightly less likely to offer German than English-medium schools (42% versus 54%).
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Audit of Foreign Languages Provision in Post-Primary Schools 2017
Post-Primary Languages Initiative February 2017 Draft Report