A total of $122,178 will be divvied up between four Coromandel schools to allow for more classes teaching Japanese to students.

Te Rerenga, Coroglen, Whenuakite and Mercury Bay Area schools will receive funding under the Asian Language Learning in Schools programme, established by the Government in 2014.

Whenuakite School (pictured) is one of five Coromandel schools that will receive funding under the Government's Asian Language Learning in Schools programme. Photo: Google Maps

Moanataiari School will also receive funding as part of a group of schools across the country led by the Virtual Learning Network Primary School Governance Group. Its focus will be on Japanese plus Korean and Mandarin languages.

The programme aims to increase the provision of Asian languages taught in schools and a total of $10 million, spread over three years, is up for grabs.

The five Coromandel schools are among 22 groups of 129 schools across the country that have received funding from the first round of funding.

Whenuakite School was part of a cluster application that was organised by Mercury Bay Area School teacher Judy Evans, who teaches Japanese.

Principal Jamie Marsden says the funding will now allow a specialist teacher to take the second language programme without adding extra responsibility on the classroom teacher.

'Teaching a second language at Year 7 and 8 level is part of the curriculum,” explains Jamie, 'so what Judy's funding does is make a teacher available to run the second language programme so the classroom teacher does not have the huge added responsibility on top of all the other curriculum areas.

'The specialist teacher should be able to run an engaging and effective programme and the classroom teacher will learn alongside the children.”

Jamie says if all the contributing schools are learning Japanese there should be a flow on effect of more children taking Japanese further at secondary level, or inspire more children to make learning a second language 'part of their lifelong learning experience”.

But the success of the programme will depend on how well the children enjoy learning Japanese, and how motivated they are to succeed in developing second language skills.

Because children learn at different rates, the programme will be required to allow children with a wide range of abilities to all achieve success, he says.

'All the research indicates that cognitive ability is enhanced through activities such as learning another language. There should be flow on effect in all learning.”

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson says it is great to see local schools will be working together to enhance the way their students learn and develop their language skills.

'We are a trading nation, so it's important our future workforce have the opportunity to learn another language and understand another culture,” says Scott.

'It's important for our next generation to be able to communicate and work in different languages as our international and trading links grow – particularly within the Asia-Pacific region.”

The programmes will begin at the start of the 2016 school year.