Pupils lagging in GCSE languages

Oldham has the second lowest take up of foreign languages at GCSE in Greater Manchester.

Figures released by the Department for Education showed that only 862 students — 28 per cent of those taking GCSEs — took at least one foreign language.

In comparison, 58 per cent of the student population in Tameside studied either French, Spanish, German or Italian, 40 per cent in Wigan, 55 per cent in Bury and 30 per cent in both Rochdale and Manchester. Take-up was only 24 per cent in Salford.

But in future foreign languages will be made virtually compulsory up to the age of 16 as part of a major overhaul of the education system announced by the Government.

A shake-up of league tables used to rate schools will force growing numbers of teenagers to take GCSEs in subjects such as French, German and Spanish.

Ministers say the reforms will also promote the study of other traditional subjects such as history, geography and science, which have fallen in popularity over the past 13 years.

For the first time, schools will be rewarded for the number of pupils with good GCSEs in five core subjects — English, maths, science, a language and one humanities subject.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “We must make sure our children are studying the subjects that stretch the mind and prepare them for a competitive world.

“We’ve had a catastrophic decline in modern languages and other nations are forging ahead of us when it comes to science.”

The coalition Government said the move would counter the decline of languages witnessed under Labour following the decision to make them optional at 14.

Modern languages were dropped as a compulsory subject for 14 to 16-year-olds in 2002, despite protests from teachers and other organisations.

The previous government introduced compulsory language learning from the age of seven, which came into force this year, in a bid to increase take-up and improve language levels of pupils when they started secondary school.

Nationally, 41 per cent of pupils were entered for at least one modern language GCSE.

The figures do not relate to the number of students passing the exams just those who were entered by their schools.