Applied Languages

    Posted by Jaiken Struck on February 13th, 2009

The scrapping of compulsory modern languages in England’s secondary schools was a consequence of an anti-truancy drive, says former education secretary Estelle Morris, who took the decision. According to her, the aim was a flexible curriculum for teenagers brought back into school.

The weakness of language learning in England has been a recurrent concern – with repeated warnings that the country lags behind international competitors. Cilt, the National Languages Centre, says that England is “highly unusual” within the European Union in not requiring pupils to learn languages up to the age of 16. Since it ceased to be compulsory for the over-14s in 2004, the number of pupils taking French GCSE has dropped by 30%.

But Baroness Morris has revealed the unexpected link between this lack of language learning and the anti-truancy drive launched by the Labour government when it came into office in 1997. Head teachers had complained that it was unrealistic to force these reluctant teenagers to learn languages. To make secondary school relevant to the pupils being reluctantly brought back to the classroom the curriculum was made more flexible, including allowing pupils not to study modern languages.

The change still meant that pupils could choose to study modern languages, but it was no longer a requirement. Baroness Morris says there was pressure to create a more flexible curriculum that would have space for more vocational courses and to engage the interest of teenagers.
Balancing this loss, the education secretary also announced the expansion of language learning in primary schools. But the number of pupils studying modern languages at GCSE has been in decline, with only 77,000 pupils taking the French exam last summer.

According to a spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, languages will be made compulsory in primary schools from 2011. This initiative is supposed to help instil an early love of languages that pupils can carry through to secondary school.

Read more: BBC News

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