Protect minority language study, says Morgan
The languages have been among the subjects due to be axed in the exam changes set for the next educational year, following the coalition’s overhaul of the exam system. But Morgan has warned that there is concern that students from minority communities would not be able to study their ‘mother tongue or that of their parents and family’.
At present, exam board OCR are set to drop GCSEs and A-levels in Turkish, Portuguese, Persian, Gujarati and Dutch, while AQA have announced they will drop the A-level study of Polish, Punjabi, Modern Hebrew and Bengali.
Morgan’s voice of concern follows a campaign to protect the minority languages, after a petition to keep Polish A-level received more than 14,000 signatures.
Professor Nigel Vincent of the British Academy, said: “Our rich multicultural society is itself a soft power asset for the UK. There is a wealth of untapped linguistic resource amongst the school age population in the UK. This needs to be mobilised, supported and given recognition through accreditation.”
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