Minister McEntee encourages schools to express an interest in participating in Say Yes to Languages module in 2025/26

Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee today (Thursday) encouraged primary schools to apply to participate in the Say Yes to Languages module in the coming school year.

Having demonstrated great success over the past four years – with over 1,300 schools taking part in the 2024/2025 school year– the module is now being offered to schools for a fifth year.

Say Yes to Languages (SYTL) will enter its second phase from the 2025/2026 school year, with the focus on preparation for the introduction of foreign languages as part of the redeveloped Primary Language Curriculum, supporting the teachers to upskill in a foreign language and teach the module, as well as providing grants to support the teaching by a visiting teacher/tutor in the short term.

Minister McEntee said:

The module is available to pupils in 5th and 6th class, and participating schools are eligible for a grant from the Department of Education of €500 per classroom, up to a maximum of €1,000 per school.

Further information and application forms are available in Circular 0031/2025.

The deadline for application is 5pm on 21 May 2025.

The Say Yes to Languages module sets out to give teachers and pupils a taste of what it means to integrate additional languages alongside English and Irish.

In this context, Say Yes to Languages aims to:

- raise awareness of the importance of modern foreign language education to build transversal skills

- prepare the ground for the implementation of the redeveloped Primary Language Curriculum.

- encourage uptake of foreign languages at post-primary level

- support implementation of Languages Connect, Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2026

- improve literacy in English and Irish

Range of languages

The range of languages chosen by schools over the last four years has included Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Irish Sign Language, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Tamil, and Ukrainian.

Schools that nominate a teacher on staff to deliver the programme who commits to participate in a foreign language upskilling course will be automatically included in the programme (various funded course options will be available throughout the year - see languagesconnect.ie/language-upskilling/ for further information - schools may also use the Say Yes to Languages grant to fund alternative or additional foreign language upskilling courses).

Where no capacity exists as yet within the school, schools will identify and secure foreign language teaching capacity within the wider community (e.g. a visiting language teacher, a foreign language assistant from a post-primary school).

Say Yes to Languages is administered by Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI)/ Languages Connect on behalf of the department. A dedicated area of the Languages Connect website (https://languagesconnect.ie/primary/) hosts all content relating to the module, including a list of participating schools. The teaching and learning resources are accessible from the website and are also available in Irish, thanks to collaboration with An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta (COGG). A frequently asked questions area provides clarification for recurrent queries.

Training sessions are provided by Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI)/ Languages Connect to all teachers/tutors delivering the module, while information sessions are also facilitated for hosting teachers and other school representatives. Awareness raising packs are also sent out to all participating schools to complement the teaching resources.

Queries can be directed to the PPLI/Languages Connect Primary team by emailing primary@ppli.ie