Young Fine Gael is calling on the Government to introduce compulsory foreign language learning in the primary school curriculum. The organisation believes that a person’s capacity to learn a new language can diminish with age, and therefore the younger one starts, the greater their ability to master the language.
YFG believes that by increasing a child’s multilingualism, this will allow them to greater benefit from all that membership of the European Union has to offer: education, travel and ERASMUS Programmes.
In 2016, in 16 of the European Union’s Member States, over three quarters of the adult working-age population reported that they knew at least one other foreign language. In Ireland, this number was below 65%.
The proposal is included in Young Fine Gael’s Pre-Budget Submission: Striving for Progress, which was unveiled at the end of August.
ENDS