Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to encourage more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn foreign languages.

Since September 2014, the reformed national curriculum makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a modern or classical language in Key Stage 2. The Department introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure in 2010 where entry into both modern and ancient language GCSEs count towards the languages element of the EBacc.

The modern foreign languages pedagogy pilot commenced in December 2018, managed by a Centre for Excellence and run through nine school-led hubs, is aiming to improve uptake and attainment in languages at Key Stages 3 and 4, and to share best practice especially in disadvantaged areas. We have also launched a pilot project in languages undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils to drive up participation in the subject, specifically targeting areas of high disadvantage to extend access to languages for all pupils.