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Education and Inspections Bill

My Lords, this has been a very interesting debate. I thank noble Lords who took part in it and the Minister for his reply. The noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, said at the beginning of her contribution that modern foreign languages are in freefall. I share her concern. We differ on what to do about it. We feel that if we started teaching modern foreign languages earlier more young people would want to take them up to external exam level and go on to university; so we would not need to compel them. The old saying is ““If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it””. Clearly it is broke and I close by saying that I hope the noble Lord will fix it. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.