AU REVOIR to FRENCH
Fewer and fewer students are choosing to study foreign languages
THE number of students taking foreign languages at school is plummeting.
There were nearly 50,000 fewer GCSE language entries across England and Wales this summer compared to 2014.
That’s according to data from Ofqual, the national qualification board.
French entries have plunged by 24 per cent, from 162,910 in 2014 to 124,250 in 2018, and the number of people taking German has also fallen by a quarter from 58,830 to 44,085.
Some foreign languages are bucking the trend. The number of young people taking a Spanish GCSE, for example, has seen a four per cent increase from 90,015 to 93,185.
The number of students taking other languages - such as Arabic and Chinese - has also risen slightly, from 31,820 to 33,140.
At the same time, the number of state-funded secondary school foreign language teachers is in decline. In 2010, there were 14,700 French teachers in state schools across England, but by 2017 this had dropped to 12,300. It means the intervening years saw a net loss of one in five French teachers. The situation is even more dire for German teachers - figures show that their numbers dropped by a third between 2010 and 2017, and hours were cut by 27 per cent.
Again, Spanish was the exception, with the number of teachers growing by 1,300 over the period.
Figures on language teachers aren’t available for Wales, though it’s likely schools there have seen a similar trend.
The decline may partly be down to school cuts.
Between 2009-10 and 2017-18, total school spending per pupil in England fell by about eight per cent in real terms, and about five per cent in Wales, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The decline in language GCSEs is mirrored at A-level - and may also be partly due to the success of other subjects.
In recent years the government has raised the profile of STEM subjects (science, technology engineering and maths), viewing them as key drivers of economic growth.
Increasingly people are choosing to study these over foreign languages at A-level. In 2018, some 28,540 students in England and Wales took a language at A-level, compared to 29,780 in 2014 - a decrease of four per cent.
Over the same period, the number of students choosing to take a STEM subject at A-level increased by four per cent, from 259,580 to 281,315.
This decline in foreign languages could be damaging our economy.
A 2014 study from the then Department for UK Trade and Investment found that the UK economy loses around £48bn a year in missed contracts because of a lack of language skills in the workforce.
There are also worries that Brexit could further reduce the number of foreign language teachers in the UK.
Looking at all school subjects, there was a two per cent drop in the number of newly qualified teachers from the European Economic Area last year, and language teachers tend to be disproportionately from the EU.
Earlier this year Baroness Cousins, chair of The All-Party Parliamentary Group on modern languages, said that around 35 per cent of foreign language teachers and lecturers are non-UK EU nationals.