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Dear AFLS members, You may want to support our colleagues in Ireland by signing the petition. See below the message from a colleague in Limerick. With best wishes, Emmanuelle ******************************** Your support for the following would be greatly appreciated. In its last budget cuts annoucements the Irish government announced that it would cut funding, with immediate effect, for the Modern Languages in Primary School Iniative (MLPSI). The MLPSI was launched a decade ago to promote the teaching of modern languages in Irish primary schools. It was, to date, the only initiative of its kind. Ireland, as some of you may know, is currently in breach of EU policies with regards the obligation for each member state to make the study of at least one foreign modern language part of the school curriculum. Ireland is in fact the only country out of the 27 EU member states not to have adopted such a policy on language learning! This will obviously have an impact on the number of students able to study a modern language as an academic subject at university level in the future. We would be very grateful if you could help us convince the Irish Minister for Education & Skills to reconsider his decision by signing the following on-line petition: http://tinyurl.com/mlpsi<http://ie.mg40.mail.yahoo.com/neo/redir.aspx?C=c976e9413b994292ad5969e34fde636d&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftinyurl.com%2fmlpsi> You will find below some more details about the MLPSI and the current situation of modern languages in Ireland: The MLPSI supports modern languages in over 550 schools nationally with a core team of just 6 people. It provides training, resources and school-based support as well as funding to 300 visiting teachers who deliver the programme in schools nationwide….all within a budget of under €2 million, and not the €2.5 million erroneously quoted in the budget documents. In terms of policy, Ireland is already years behind our commitments under the Barcelona Agreement and the Lisbon Strategy – these agreements called for systems to be in place to facilitate early language learning of at least two foreign languages by 2010 .….Even more incredibly, all EU countries, including Ireland, ratified recommendations in NOVEMBER 2011 in which Ireland has pledged to “step up its efforts” to implement the Barcelona Agreement!!! Please see - http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st16/st16744.en11.pdf As recently as October the Royal Irish Academy published their National Languages Strategy which called for “the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (to)be integrated into the mainstream curriculum, as strongly recommended by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (2005) and the Council of Europe Policy Profile (2008) document, rather than being limited to extra-curricular time and to a portion of schools”. A Dept. of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation report also quoted in the RIA strategy and states that “the widespread but erroneous perception that ‘English is enough’ militates against the kind of plurilingual ambitions and achievements common in non-anglophone EU member states. The most recent strategy and action plan issued by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation argues that ‘the main challenge for Ireland…is to become a truly multilingual society, where the ability to learn and use two or more languages is taken for granted and fostered at every stage of the education system and through lifelong education”. In such difficult economic times, how can this decision be justified??? Over 14 years of expertise will be lost to the system and a whole generation of Irish children will be placed at an even greater disadvantage as they try to compete for jobs with our fellow Europeans. This decision will result in the only children accessing modern language classes being the privileged classes who can afford to pay for them – a return to the situation of 20 years ago. It will also result in over 300 more teachers on the live register. Best wishes, Loïc Guyon *************************************** Dr Loïc Guyon Head of the Department of French Studies Mary Immaculate College University of Limerick ********************************************** Dr Emmanuelle Labeau Senior Lecturer in French Language and Linguistics Director of University Wide Language Programme President of the Association for French Language Studies (2011-2013) Editor in chief of Cahiers AFLS: http://www.afls.net/cahiersrevue.php School of Languages and Social Sciences Aston University Aston Triangle Birmingham B4 7ET UK Tel. 00 44 (0) 121 204 3773 Fax: 00 44 (0) 121 204 3766 Personal page: http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lss/staff/labeaue/