Education: Polish A-level

Baroness Coussins Excerpts

Monday 18th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We agree entirely that all pupils should have a rich cultural education. We have made it quite clear that it is particularly important for languages to expose them to a different culture.

[Baroness Coussins (CB)]

My Lords, the Government’s commitment to the continuation of Polish is welcome, but will the Minister also assure the House that the Government’s injection of £10 million into teaching Mandarin in schools will not be at the expense of other languages identified by the British Council as the 10 most vital to the UK for economic, cultural and diplomatic reasons, including French, German and Spanish, as well as lesser-taught languages such as Arabic and Turkish?

[Lord Nash]

I am happy to give the noble Baroness that assurance. China is obviously a country of huge strategic importance to this country and education is very important in that. A great deal of activity is going on. In addition to the £10 million that we have given to boost Mandarin teaching in schools, excellent work is being done at the IOE Confucius Institute, supported ably by organisations such as HSBC and Swire.