Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that teaching and learning of modern foreign languages as part of EBacc is promoted and protected.

The Department introduced the EBacc performance measure to halt the decline in the number of pupils taking GCSEs in languages. The reformed National Curriculum now makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a foreign language at Key Stage 2. The proportion of GCSE entries from pupils in state-funded schools in a modern foreign language (MFL) has increased from 40% in 2010 to 46% in 2018.

The Department offers generous financial incentives for teaching languages, including scholarships in modern languages worth £28,000, and tax-free bursaries, typically worth up to £26,000, for trainees of MFL initial teacher training.

The Department has announced £4.8 million in funding for a MFL Pedagogy Pilot, appointing lead schools and a centre for excellence, to improve uptake and attainment in languages at Key Stages 3 and 4. The Department is funding a £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme, with 5,000 pupils on track to reach a high level of fluency in Mandarin by 2020. We have also launched a pilot project for MFL undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils to increase take up in the subject.

The Department has also recently published a leaflet[1] (see attachment) for parents, which explains why studying a language, as part of the EBacc, will provide their children with an insight into other cultures, opening the door to travel and employment opportunities.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc.