Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will instruct exam boards to offer GCSE and A-Level examinations in Persian after 2018; and if she will make a statement.

Examination boards are independent organisations and the Secretary of State cannot instruct them to offer any particular qualifications. On 22 April we announced the successful preservation of community language qualifications following negotiation with the examination boards. This fulfilled the commitment made by the Government in 2015. The announcement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/future-of-community-language-qualifications-secured.

It remains open to the exam boards to decide to offer qualifications in Persian in future.