Government acts to save community languages in schools

Community languages such as Panjabi, Portuguese and Japanese will continue to be offered in schools thanks to action taken by the government.

The move comes after exam boards announced they would withdrawer several courses from 2017. The government has worked with Ofqual and the exam boards to secure agreement that these languages will continue to be offered up to GCSE and A-level.

Pearson and AQA will continue to offer the languages they currently offer and will also work to develop new GSCEs and A-levels, taking on most of the qualifications that are being withdrawn by OCR. OCR has agreed to continue offering these languages until 2018, when the new qualifications from Pearson and AQA are set to be introduced.

The languages that will remain on offer include: Arabic, Modern Greek, Gujarati, Bengali, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese and Turkish.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: “One of Britain’s strengths is its rich, multicultural nature and ensuring young people have the opportunity to study a wide range of languages is integral to that.

“I am delighted that these languages will continue at GCSE and A level. Learning a foreign language opens up a whole world of opportunity and ensures our young people will be able to compete on a global scale.

“I also want to thank those exam boards who have worked with us to protect these languages so we will continue to have high quality qualifications available.”