The Government believes that the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) provides the right educational foundation for the majority of pupils. We want to see a significant increase in the proportion of pupils in mainstream secondary schools entering the EBacc combination of subjects at GCSE.

We will publish further detail about the EBacc policy in due course.

We have no data on numbers of Erasmus+ participants who go on to be modern foreign language (MFL) teachers. At a national level we are retaining and recruiting the teachers we need. We recognise, however, that the situation is challenging in certain subjects including MFL. Therefore we are offering up to £25,000 for MFL bursaries and

have expanded the prestigious scholarship scheme for 2017/18 entry by introducing scholarships in MFL.

We are funding subject specialism training in languages for non-specialist teachers who already have some language expertise, and for former language teachers returning to the subject. We have reviewed our approach on returners and developed a package of tailored classroom experience which seeks to increase the number of MFL returners and which will be piloted in the north-west and south-east. This will further complement the wider national package of advisor support available to returning MFL teachers.

We recognise the value of international exchange and collaboration in education and training, as part of our vision for the UK as a global nation. There may be European programmes – such as Erasmus+ – in which we might want to participate. We will consider this as part of the Brexit negotiation.

The Government is committed to increasing the proportion of the population gaining language qualifications. As a result of the English Baccalaureate, the number of students studying a language at GCSE has increased from 40% in 2010 to 49% in 2016.

Additionally, we want to improve the quality of language teaching. We welcome the Teaching Schools Council’s report on modern languages teaching practice in secondary schools and encourage schools and teachers to consider its recommendations in reviewing their current practice.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that would not be possible is if British citizens’ rights in European member states were not protected in return. The Government is considering the options for our future immigration system very carefully. As part of that it is important that we understand the effect on the different sectors of the economy and the labour market, including on modern foreign language teachers and assistants, from any changes that we make.

The 2011 Census does not include information about the number of UK nationals who speak a second language fluently. However, it shows that 7.7% of the population had a main language other than English.

Studying a language provides an opening to other cultures and is important to prepare students to compete in a global jobs market. A 2013 report by Cardiff Business School, ‘The Costs to the UK of Language Deficiencies as a Barrier to UK Engagement in Exporting’, estimated that the gross costs of language ignorance might have been 3.5% of national income in 2006 - £48 billion.

The Government is committed to increasing the proportion of the population gaining language qualifications. Thanks to the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), the number of students studying a language at GCSE has increased from 40% in 2010 to 49% in 2016. In August, we confirmed that EBacc entry would become a headline measure in school performance tables from this year, alongside EBacc achievement. This will encourage schools to enter more pupils for the EBacc and for languages in future, which should increase the pool of potential people studying languages at A level and beyond.

The Higher Education and Research Bill, currently before Parliament, contains provisions that would allow Government to direct public funding to protect the supply of strategically or economically important subjects at university, such as modern foreign languages.

We have more teachers in our schools than ever before and the number of teachers has kept pace with changing numbers of pupils. There are more than 456,000 teachers in schools throughout England – up more than 15,000 since 2010. Teaching continues to be a popular profession with more than 14,000 former teachers coming back to the classroom in the last year.

We recognise that as schools increase their entry rates to English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects there will be more demand for specialist teachers, particularly language teachers. That is why we are spending over £1.3 billion up to 2020 to attract new teachers into the profession including continuing to offer teacher training bursaries in history, geography and languages to make sure that we continue to attract the brightest graduates. We have recently announced the expansion of the teacher subject specialism training to include modern foreign languages.

This investment in training the next generation of teachers clearly demonstrates the political will we have to make sure that all schools are able to recruit the teachers they need.

The Department only collects data on pupils’ first language spoken which is not an indicator of proficiency in English or other languages. The Department does not hold information on the number of pupils who are bilingual or trilingual.

Full historical data about all qualifications (including GCSEs and A levels in modern foreign languages) and the respective dates when they were available to pupils across England are attached and available at ‘Section 96 – Qualifications’ on the Department’s website.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) maintains a register of current, withdrawn and expired regulated qualifications and their operational start and end dates. The register includes qualifications available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is available at Ofqual’s ‘Register of Regulated Qualifications’ on their website.

Information on the number of entries in modern foreign language GCSEs and A Levels in England and the number for which a pass grade was achieved for 2006/07 to 2014/15 inclusive is provided in the tables below.

Source: Key stage 4 attainment data

Source: 16-18 attainment data

[1] Prior to 2010/11, no discounting was applied and all entries and achievements were included. From 2010/11, discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once and only one entry is counted in these circumstances. Only the first entry is counted, in all subjects, in line with the early entry guidance.

[2] In 2013/14, two major reforms were implemented which affect the calculation of key stage 4 performance measures data: 1) Professor Alison Wolf’s Review of Vocational Education recommendations which: restrict the qualifications counted; prevent any qualification from counting as larger than one GCSE; and cap the number of non-GCSEs included in performance measures at two per pupil, and 2) an early entry policy to only count a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification, in subjects counted in the English Baccalaureate. Consequently, the numbers supplied prior to 2013/14 are not comparable with those from 2013/14 onwards.

[3] In 2014/15, early entry policy, under which only a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification is counted in performance measures, was extended to all subjects.

[4] The A* grade was introduced in 2009/10, prior to that only grades A to E existed as pass grades.

[5] 2015 figures are based on revised data. Figures for all other years are final.

[6] The A* grade was introduced in 2009/10, prior to that only grades A to E existed as pass grades.

Government action has resulted in GCSEs and A levels in a range of community languages being continued, to ensure young people can carry on studying a diverse range of foreign languages.

This follows a Government commitment in 2015 to protect a number of language GCSEs and A levels after the exam boards announced that from 2017 they would be withdrawing several courses.

Since then the Government has worked with Ofqual and the exam boards and we have been successful in securing most of the less-taught languages at GCSE and A level for future years. In addition to Chinese, Italian and Russian, the languages now secure are Arabic, Bengali, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Greek, Gujarati, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish and Urdu.

The Department welcomes the survey; in particular its findings on the steps primary schools are taking to improve the quality of language teaching since it became compulsory in maintained primary schools in September 2014. By introducing the EBacc, we have stopped the decline in modern foreign languages seen in the last decade, where 200,000 fewer GCSE students studied a modern language in 2010 than in 2002.

Last year’s results showed 20% more pupils are taking languages at GCSE than in 2010 while A level entries in modern languages have increased by nearly 4% since 2014.

The information requested is shown in the table below. Data for the academic year 2014 to 2015 will be published in summer 2016.

These figures don’t include any data on Teach First teachers. In addition, data from the first full cohort of School Direct is only available from 2013/14.

The proposals in the English Baccalaureate consultation launched on 3 November imply an increase in the numbers of teachers of languages needed. The EBacc-related increase is over and above the additional teachers needed to keep up with the rise in the secondary school pupil population.

We will forecast the demand for additional Modern Foreign Language teachers following the conclusion of the consultation. This will give us a better understanding of how schools plan to respond to the resulting workforce requirements from 2017/18.

The Department does this, in part, by adding policy assumptions into the Teacher Supply Model (TSM), which informs the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) targets each year.

More details as to how the policy assumption process is managed within the TSM itself, along with some previous examples, can be found in both the 2016/17 TSM and the accompanying user guide.

To support recruitment to languages Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in 2016/17, we have increased the bursary rates for postgraduate languages trainees on fee-based courses. Trainees with 2:1 degree classification will now receive £25,000 (up from £20,000 in 2015/16 in 2015/16) and those with a 2:2 will receive £20,000 (up from £15,000 in 2015/16).

We offer potential languages trainees a range of support. The Premier Plus programme is available to candidates wanting to teach languages. This service includes support from a dedicated advisor; access to exclusive events; and regular communications with important news and application hints and tips. Languages candidates are also eligible for the funded School Experience Programme, helping them gain classroom experience to assist with their ITT application. Before they begin their training, languages applicants may benefit from funded Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses, through which they can improve either their first or their second additional language. Bursary support is also available for applicants undertaking an SKE course.

Furthermore, we want to attract qualified languages teachers who wish to return to the profession. We have recently launched a new pilot programme designed to help schools to attract and support returning teachers; this includes funding for returning language teachers. We will be undertaking a national marketing campaign to support this initiative.