Written question asked by David Laws (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 25 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 October 2007. It was answered by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour) on Monday, 8 October 2007 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Teachers: Mandarin

Question: (4) how many new teachers of (a) Mandarin and (b) Urdu are expected to be recruited over the next five years;

Answer: The level of qualification required to teach Mandarin and Urdu will be the same as for any other modem language and teachers will normally have a post A level qualification which will be built upon as part of their training. It is not possible to state how many new teachers of a particular language there will be over the next few years or therefore what the cost of training them will be. While the Government sets the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) a target for the number of training places for modem languages as a whole, it does not specify how this should be split between individual languages. This depends on the demand from schools and local authorities for teachers of a particular language, which will then be reflected in the number of training places offered by providers.Following the review of the key stage 3 curriculum (11 to 14-year-olds), schools will be able to offer any major European or world language from September 2008. The new key stage 3 programme of study does not stipulate what languages should be taught, although suggests schools might offer major European or world languages such as Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish and Urdu. It is a school level decision which languages they teach.

Secondary information