Teaching modern languages at primary school in Northern Ireland has 'all but collapsed' due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a British Council report. The Language Trends 2021 study found that language learning was severely disrupted when children were not being taught face-to-face.
The report, based on responses from over 120 primary school principals and more than 1,500 year nine pupils, also revealed that Northern Ireland pupils study languages on a compulsory basis for less time than any other country in Europe. Language learning is compulsory only at Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14), with no government guidance on time allocation.
The number of pupils taking French at GCSE has fallen from over 14,000 in 1995 to under 5,000 in 2020. Spanish may soon overtake French as the most popular language at GCSE and A-level, while Irish is predicted to become the second most popular at A-level within a few years.
More than half of primary school heads reported that language teaching had collapsed during the pandemic. Remote learning proved particularly challenging for year nine pupils, with many finding language learning online harder than other subjects. Fewer than half of year nine pupils (44%) said they planned to continue studying a language at GCSE level.
The report also highlighted that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland where primary pupils do not have an entitlement to learn a language as part of the curriculum. Funding for a scheme to provide specialist language teachers in primary schools was scrapped by the Department of Education in 2015.
