It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is always a Good Thing, of which you cannot have too much. It might seem obvious, then, that a film critic like myself would welcome the addition of film to the new Leaving Certificate English syllabus. Leaving Cert students will now have the opportunity, as part of the comparative mode for examination, to choose from a number of texts - including, for the first time, film. They will have the opportunity to compare themes and issues in works as diverse as Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling and Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot. In an increasingly audio-visual era, this surely makes sense? Well, not if those teaching the course are not equipped to handle the handle the language and codes of cinema.

The syllabus makes grand claims for its new, interdisciplinary approach: "The term `language' includes verbal and visual forms of communication," it says. "In this syllabus the role of the media, film and theatrical experience will be significant. Developing students' powers of discrimination and interpretative abilities in relation to these media and the encouragement of performance and of creative productions will be integral elements of this syllabus."

Leaving aside for the moment the worrying implications of an English course which appears to be leaving considerations of syntax, grammar and spelling ever further behind, the description of filmic texts is problematic: "The discourse of film can use all of the elements of discourse in fiction and drama but adds something totally unique: the camera and the form of discourse it makes possible," according to the syllabus. Well, no. It would be more accurate to say that the forms of discourse of cinema (which in addition to camera, include editing, music, design and other elements) may often draw upon those discourses familiar to students of literary fiction and drama. But this is the inevitable trap which comes with studying an audio-visual artform as part of a literary syllabus.

So what chance do students have of developing an understanding of film within the Leaving Cert English course? The prescribed films on the syllabus don't offer a lot of hope: Cinema Paradiso, Dances With Wolves, The Third Man, My Left Foot, Much Ado About Nothing, Room With a View . . . It was this list which originally raised my suspicions about the thinking behind the new initiative. By any standards, it's hardly representative of the best that cinema has to offer. Of course, opinions may differ on the relative merits of these six titles. My initial reaction, I admit, was: "Teacher's films . . . what could you expect?" Dances with Wolves, in particular, sticks in the craw. Surely most people can see by now that it's one of the most overpraised, tedious pieces of nonsense of the last 20 years. What will a class of cine-literate teenagers raised on the knowing self-referentiality of Scream, or fresh from the narrative disruption of Go, make of its self-important windbaggery? With a bit of luck, they'll slice it up with derision, but one fears they'll just become bored and cynical about the whole process of studying and interrogating film.

One of the many ironies of all this is that teachers are likely to find themselves faced by students who know more about the subject than they do. Modern teenage movie-goers are comfortable and at home with a film culture which celebrates irony, intertextuality and deconstruction. What price the unfortunate teacher who wants to celebrate the homely humanist values of Cinema Paradiso, but finds its middle-aged, middlebrow sentimentality doesn't wash? More importantly still, what sort of intellectual discipline will that teacher bring to bear on Cinema Paradiso as a filmic text? Words like "diversity" and "enriching" crop up a lot in the syllabus, but there's no sign of the word "rigour" (mind you, it's hard to take seriously any document which uses the word "dialogue" as a verb). Anecdotal evidence suggests that formal in-service training on the film component of the syllabus has been very slow in getting off the ground. Even when it does, one day's training is presumed to be enough to give a grounding in cine-literacy to teachers who will have spent several years of their lives studying English literature at third level before embarking on their chosen profession.

But, even if the level of in-service training were more impressive, there would be serious doubts as to what film is doing on the English Leaving Cert course anyway. It's one thing to use specific films to amplify or reflect on literary texts (and on historical or cultural events). It's quite another to embed film in a course primarily devoted to the use of the word. Except, apparently (and this came as a surprise to me), that is not what the English course is about any more. "The subject `English' as envisaged by this syllabus is not limited to the written word," according to the Department of Education's document. "In the modern world, most students encounter significant language experiences in oral and visual contexts [my italics]. The experience of language in the media in all forms, visual, aural and print, needs to be recognised as a prime, shaping agency of students' outlook." No wonder nobody can spell any more.

It appears, therefore, that English teachers around the country are being asked to accept responsibility for teaching a range of critical disciplines under the rubric of "language" (forget the English bit). In the case of film, the syllabus acknowledges that a non-literary, non-verbal language may be involved, but fails to address the very thorny question of why English teachers should be expected to have a grounding in this. Interestingly enough, Ireland appears to be the only European country which has chosen to introduce film into the syllabus in this particular way. In other countries, film falls within the ambit of Media Studies (another troublesome subject, as it happens), or is recognised as a separate artform/ discipline in its own right.

Maybe it's a symptom of the often-noted Irish obsession with the written and spoken word as the primary form of communication; maybe it's a case of a square peg being rammed into a round hole for reasons of expediency, but the inclusion of film in Leaving Cert English seems like a bad case of woolly thinking on the part of the Department of Education, and the implementation (or lack of it) so far suggests that there's a fair amount of uncertainty abroad as to how exactly it should be handled. In such a situation, one has to question the value of including film in the Leaving Cert at all.

Hugh Linehan will be speaking at a seminar on the methodology and principles of the Leaving Certificate film course presented by the Cork Arts Fest and Teachers of Media Education (TAME) on Saturday, 13th November in the Kino Cinema, Washington St, Cork. For reservations, contact Tricia Harrington at Cork Institute of Technology. Tel 021 326 445. Fax 021 326 567