Chinese Exam coming for Leaving Cert

04 May 2012

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has said that Chinese will be offered as Leaving Cert subject in the future.

This was announced in Portlaoise yesterday at the official unveiling of a transition-year course on Chinese language and culture. This transistion-year module combines language lessons with the study of traditional and modern Chinese culture. Over 22 secondary schools are already studying Chinese language and culture as part of their curriculums, and all of these schools had representatives present yesterday.

Although he stopped short of mentioning a specific date for the inclusion of Chinese in the Leaving Cert, Mr Quinn said he hoped the transition-year course would “whet the appetite for students to study Chinese for the Leaving Cert”.

He also announced an optional short course on Chinese language and culture which will be made available as part of the new Junior Cert cycle programme from 2014.

He said that:

“The last 500 years have been dominated by a Eurocentric view of the world from the time of Christopher Columbus discovering, to use that arrogant word, a place that existed long before the Europeans arrived there,”

The Minister went on to add that:

“The Europeans got to more or less write the agenda of the global political system but that is coming to an end. The young people in transition year have to realise that the dominance of the western world, which we have taken for granted, now has to be replaced with a respect and an understanding of other major centres of political force.”

Read the full Irish Times article here.