Some 600,000 pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their GCSE results last Thursday.
According to exam boards French entries were up by 15.6 per cent to 177,288, Spanish increased by 25.8 per cent to 91,315 and German was up 9.4 per cent to 62,932.
Not only are the more ‘common’ languages becoming a more popular option choice at keystage 4, it would seem, but there was also a 5.1 per cent increase in the take-up of other languages, with the most popular being Italian with 5,136, followed by Urdu with 4,519 and Polish 3,933. Others increasing in popularity include Arabic (3,607) and Chinese (3,042).
The rise in numbers studying a foreign language led to a drop in the percentage of pupils gaining A* to C grades in the subject – with French down from 66.2 per cent to 63.9 per cent, German from 43.3 per cent to 42.1 per cent and Spanish from 66.8 per cent to 66.2 per cent. However, exam boards explained this by saying that the rise had attracted a broader range of candidates to study the exam.
The EBacc has also helped with these statistics: in order to gain this qualification, students need to obtain GCSE grades A* to C in the core academic subjects: English, two sciences, maths and a humanity and a language. When modern languages became optional at keystage 4 in 2004, numbers of entries for modern languages dropped. Now this trend is being reversed.
Although more pupils are opting to take a language at GCSE, however, this trend does not appear to be continuing for A Level choices. This year’s A-level results revealed a further decline in take-up – with a 9.9per cent fall in the take-up of French and 11.1 per cent drop in German, only minimally offset by a 4.1 per cent rise in Spanish.
From an employers’ point of view, therefore, this is a mixed blessing. For now it is encouraging to see there is a revival when it comes to languages. No doubt they will hope this in time will lead to more students considering this area for further study at sixth form level. It is better late than never that languages are being made a compulsory part of primary education, but it will be many years before we will be able to reap the rewards fully.