The number of primary schools offering a foreign language as a subject has increased to 390 from 270 in 1998, when schools first began teaching "modern languages".
French has proven by far the most popular option, with 215 primary schools now teaching it to their pupils. Next most popular is German, which is taught in 93 schools, followed by Spanish (65 schools) and Italian (17 schools).
Speaking yesterday at the launch of a report into the foreign languages scheme, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said it had been hoped a greater balance between the four languages could have been achieved.
This may take time and greater availability of teachers qualified to teach the languages at both primary and post-primary, he said.
The National Project on Modern Languages began in September 1998 in fifth and sixth classes in primary schools. Funding has been provided by the EU.
The pilot project began in 270 schools, after 1,300 applied to be included. Since then more schools have joined every year, with 390 now taking part.
The review of the project launched yesterday, "Modern Languages in the Primary School: An Evaluation of the Project", concluded that even pupils who had made modest progress in other curricular areas "proved capable of reasonable achievement in the area of modern languages".
The review also found pupils in disadvantaged areas compared well to those in other schools when tested.
"The tests administered show that pupils, in the vast majority of cases, have made real progress in developing listening comprehension skills and an initial competence in spoken communication competence in the language," Mr Dempsey said.
Institutes of technology now offer graduate diploma and certificate courses to teachers wishing to teach any of the four "modern languages".
