Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the future of A-levels and GCSEs for (a) Turkish, (b) Greek, (c) Gujarati, (d) Modern Hebrew, (e) Panjabi, (f) Polish, (g) Bengali and (h) other community languages; and if she will outline steps that will be taken in pursuit of that policy.

The Department for Education is currently considering what further support and encouragement can be provided to awarding organisations to enable as wide a range of languages as possible to be maintained at GCSE and A level.

The government has been clear that it wants to see all pupils provided with the opportunity to take a core set of academic subjects, including modern foreign languages. The number of pupils entering for a modern language GCSE has increased by 20% since 2010 due to the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. There are considerable benefits to learning a second language and the government is keen to see the range of languages at GCSE and A level preserved. To this end, the Secretary of State wrote to exam boards during the pre-election period in April to express her concern about their decision to stop awarding qualifications in some languages. She asked awarding organisations to work with Ofqual on the future of these qualifications and committed, if there is no further action, to launching a consultation on how best to secure the future of these qualifications.