Written question asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Hill of Oareford (Conservative) on Monday, 7 February 2011.

Education: Languages

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to encourage the teaching of more foreign languages in schools.

Answer: The Government believe that learning a language is important to the social and economic future of the country and to help children to understand the world in which they live. We have announced a review of the national curriculum, which will consider the status of languages at both primary and secondary level. We plan to consult a wide range of academics, teachers and other interested parties to ensure that our core curriculum can compare with those of the highest-performing countries in the world. We have also introduced the English baccalaureate, which is designed to recognise the success of those pupils who attain GCSEs or iGCSEs at grade A*-C across a core of academic subjects, including a language. We have included this new measure in the performance tables to give special recognition to those schools that are helping their pupils to attain this breadth and we will mark individual pupils’ achievements through a certificate. We expect that this will raise the take-up of languages at GCSE level.

Secondary information