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Written question asked by Lord Bowness (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Adonis (Labour) on Wednesday, 19 March 2008.

Schools: GCSEs

Question
asked Her Majesty's Government:In which languages other than English it is possible to take GCSE examinations; and how many entrants there have been for examinations in each language in the last three years for which figures are available.
Answer

GCSE examinations are available in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Chinese, French, German, Gujarati, modern Greek, modern Hebrew, Irish (short course), Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Panjabi, Persian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Urdu, Latin and ancient Greek. The attached table shows the number of GCSE entries since 2005. The entries figures for French, German and Spanish for last three years have been rounded while validation checks are under way. The final figures will be available by April. Entry figures for Latin and ancient Greek are not currently available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

2007 2006 2005
French 189,700 209,800 244,800
German 75,800 84,800 99,200
Spanish 53,800 52,100 52,200
Italian 3,245 3,056 3,108
Arabic 1,929 1,597 1,448
Bengali 1,517 1,590 1,696
Chinese 2,159 1,827 1,973
Gujarati 1,054 1,025 986
Japanese 874 839 833
Modern Hebrew 376 412 372
Panjabi 1,147 928 1,027
Turkish 1,330 996 947
Urdu 5,466 5,322 5,478
Persian 398 338 286
Dutch 392 267 315
Modern Greek 494 463 432
Portuguese 983 617 728
Polish 972 205 325
Russian 1,556 1,464 1,396

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
2360; 700 c52-3WA
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Languages GCSE
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk