Ever since 2004, when the Labour government gave schools the freedom to make languages optional, education ministers have awaited GCSE and A level entry figures with the trepidation of candidates who know they have messed up their French oral. Numbers for foreign languages GCSEs have dropped by a whopping 44 per cent and numbers for French and German A levels have declined by more than a third over the past 13 years.
This year’s crop of A level exam figures have been greeted with relief by government and exam boards alike. “Steady” and “stable” have been the preferred adjectives. But GCSE numbers published on Thursday show another huge decline which appears to wipe out earlier increases linked to some of Michael Gove’s reforms.
The headline statistics here are troubling indeed. Numbers for French are down 10 per cent on last year, and for German 13 per cent, making this year's figures the lowest yet. But even this does not do justice to the true extent of the crisis in language learning, which runs through all parts of the education system. To appreciate the full scale of the problem, you have to dig deeper into the numbers. As we approach Brexit and the readjustment of the UK’s relationship with the rest of the world, we would do well to take this seriously.
Languages taught vs languages examined
Over the last 20 years or so, the balance of different languages which make up the exam figures has changed radically. This might seem like a good thing, but it disguises a worrying trend—one which proves that the problem runs far deeper than today’s figures suggest.In 2000, French and German accounted for 71 per cent of language entries across GCSE and A-Level, but since then the number of candidates for French has halved, and the figure for German had, at last count, nosedived to just 42 per cent of what it was. This is in spite of the fact that job advertisements in the UK cite French and German vastly more frequently than any other language—even Spanish.
There are 16 languages in addition to French, German and Spanish which can be taken at A level. In 2000, 10 per cent of pupils sat their exams in these. This year, it was 30 per cent.
But these are not languages which are generally offered to new learners within the school system. The increase in numbers is down to schools and parents encouraging pupils to sit the exams based on their prior knowledge of the language, for instance because they speak it at home. So, while diversification of languages represented in recent exam figures is welcome, it is not necessarily down to schools teaching a wider range of them. There are a few schools taking steps to introduce Chinese, and Arabic is strong in Muslim faith schools, but generally the languages taught remain French, Spanish and German, and many schools struggle to maintain even these.
Regional disparities
There are huge differences in take up for languages between the English regions, and between regions of the UK. The top ten local authorities for participation in languages at GCSE are all in London apart from York—which comes ninth. The overall trend in London is towards increasing numbers taking a language to GCSE, but the decline in the rest of the country is severe. Wales does worse still: only about one in five pupils takes a foreign language to GCSE—although of course the vast majority take both Welsh and English.So, in addition to the basic problem, there is a gulf opening up between those areas of the country which are growing in linguistic competence, and those which are falling back on monolingualism.
Social disparities
The geographic disparity in language take up is associated also with social differences: low uptake for languages is associated with economic disadvantage and low educational achievement generally. Recent survey data shows that the most disadvantaged pupils are more likely to be withdrawn from language lessons in Key Stage 3 (the compulsory phase—when children first arrive at secondary school), more likely to be allowed to drop languages after only two years, less likely to be able to study more than one foreign language and less likely to take a language to GCSE. To this picture add the disparities between state and independent schools, where in the latter languages tend to be taught from an earlier age, in smaller classes, often with more opportunities for extra-curricular activities and certainly with a greater choice of languages on offer.For anyone who believes that education should open the world up to children these disparities are worrying. And can it be just a coincidence that the local authorities with the lowest levels of participation in languages at GCSE recorded some of the highest votes for leaving the EU?
The challenges of being successful in a globalised world will not lessen once we leave the EU. In fact, they are likely to increase. We cannot allow whole sections of our society to miss out on the cultural benefits language learning brings. We must rebalance our education system in favour of language learning for all.
