GCSE students spurn languages

It’s GCSE exam results time again and for thousands of students up and down the country, there’s been much to celebrate with overall results improving for the 23rd year running.  Unfortunately, the study of languages has taken a further hit, with French dropping out of the top 10 most popular subjects for the first time.  Figures published by the exam boards show that less than a quarter of pupils now take French in the last two years of secondary school, with German also falling to a new low.

And it’s not just the fact that languages are being dropped in favour of easier subjects that is worrying.  There also appears to be an increasing class divide around languages, with public and grammar school pupils much more likely to study languages than those students in state schools, reinforcing notions of elitism.

For anyone involved in the languages industry, or in fact anyone interested in languages, the statistics are sobering.  A CILT spokesperson commented: “Languages are seen as difficult and, with an array of other subjects on offer, there is little incentive for either schools or learners to make languages a priority for option choices.  There is a widespread consensus, shared by employers, educationalists and politicians of all persuasions, that we are letting our young people down by allowing so many of them to opt out of language learning as early as 13 or 14.”

So what can be done to stop the rot?  Surely the first step is for the Government to reinstate compulsory language study for 14-year-olds.  There clearly needs to be a major government drive, similar to that for single sciences, to boost the flagging numbers of student taking languages.  But the study of languages is also in need of a major face lift to engage with young audiences, making it more exciting and more accessible.  And that needs to happen well before 13, by inspiring primary school pupils to learn about other cultures, other people and how they communicate. 

Perhaps the Government’s strategy of boosting languages in primary schools will ultimately pay off, by engaging children early on.  But surely it’s only worth while if students can’t then just drop their studies later on.  For private companies like ours, the numbers of language learners continues to grow dramatically every year.  So we see a real desire in the UK to learn but we need to catch people at the earliest ages to make languages a lifelong passion.

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