29-07-16 Nikos Filis responds to New Democracy MP Fortsakis on second language teaching

The parallel instruction in a second foreign language is not abolished, if the preconditions are met, and the additional teaching of a second language is extended to primary schools of four teaching slots or more.

The clarification by Education Minister Nikos Filis was in response to a question from New Democracy MP Theodoros Fortsakis regarding the teaching of a second foreign language in primary schools.

French and German as a second language have two course hours per week in four-teacher schools that are in the Unified All-Day Primary School framework.

 Regarding the hourly programme schedule of second foreign language teaching at all-day primary schools, the following applies:

1. The students are taught as a second language either French or German, depending on which has the greater number of applicants, among students who will attend fifth grade in the following year. In cases of a tie, the second language taught will be that for which there are available teaching hours in the competent Directorate of Primary Education. Students cannot transfer to another class due to a different second language than the one which was chosen by majority for their class.
2. If by October 1 of the school year the foreign language teacher’s slot is not filled for the language chosen by the majority of students, then students are taught the second language for which there are available teaching hours in the local Primary Education Directorate.

For sixth graders in 2016-2017, second language arrangements will remain the same as in 2015-2016. If there are no classes from the previous year, the second language taught will be selected under the aforementioned procedures in A and B.

At schools with two or more classes per grade, the students may be distributed according to their preferences to mixed-parallel sections on two conditions:

1. A minimum of 14 students is required to create a class
2. The number of parallel sections cannot exceed the number of general education classes, e.g. when you have two general education classes you create two foreign language sections, and with three general education classes you create three second language classes.

In cases where conditions a. and b. are not met, the second language is taught in the general education class based on the preference of the majority of students.

Parents or guardians of upcoming 2016-2017  fifth graders must declare the language preference and submit it to the school principal by June 8, 2016.

Hence, the parallel teaching of a second language is not abolished, if the preconditions are met, and second language teaching is extended to schools with four or more teachers.

Education Minister Nikos Filis said that on July 7 the Academic Committee of the Educational Policy Institute submitted proposals to upgrade foreign language teaching, in the framework of the National Dialogue on Education.