Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2016 to Question 46637, how the initial 14 schools were selected for that programme; and where the other 12 schools are situated.

In addition to the two schools in the Midlands (cited in the answer to PQ 46637), there are eight schools in London and the surrounding area, one in the East of England, one in the South, one in the South East, and one in the North West, on the Mandarin Excellence Programme. A full list of these schools can be found at: https://ciforschools.wordpress.com/mep-schools/

The first group of schools that started the programme in 2016 were selected on the basis of their good track record in teaching Mandarin Chinese and their capacity to meet the demanding conditions of the programme, including that pupils study the language for eight hours a week.