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Written question asked by Anneliese Dodds (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 March 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 March 2024. It was answered by Damian Hinds (Conservative) on Wednesday, 13 March 2024 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Languages: GCSE

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of schools that will offer GCSE qualifications in modern foreign languages in each of the next five years in (a) Oxford, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) the South East and (d) England.

Answer

The department does not produce future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications, or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.

The department recognises the importance of the study of languages in Britain and is taking steps to increase the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE level and beyond. This is particularly important given that languages were made non-mandatory in 2004. The department’s Language Hubs programme is comprised of 15 lead hub schools across England, all of which will work with other schools in their area to improve standards of language teaching, in line with recommendations of the Teaching Schools Council’s 2016 modern foreign languages pedagogy review.

Managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education, the programme provides high-quality teacher Continuing Professional Development and includes improving transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, and increasing the access to home, heritage, and community languages.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
17397
Session
2023-24
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Languages GCSE
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk