Primary school children to learn European language under curriculum change

Children will spend one hour a week learning a modern European language under a new primary school curriculum that will be phased in in the coming years.
There is no detail as yet on what any new primary school curriculum will look like, nor when these changes will begin to be felt in the classroom.
A framework to give overall shape to the new curriculum was announced today. Work on subject areas has begun but its introduction is still a number of years away.
The new framework sees the return of a modern European language to primary schools, allocating one hour per week to this from third class upwards.
A previous European languages initiative was shelved in 2012 as part of cutbacks introduced during the economic crash and there has been pressure since then to introduce a modern language.
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