Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on plans by awarding organisations to offer A levels in (a) Polish, (b) Gujarati, (c) Panjabi, (d) Bengali, (e) Turkish, (f) Urdu and (g) Modern Hebrew; and whether she plans to consult on the future availability of such qualifications in those subjects.

The department is aware of the awarding organisations’ plans to withdraw qualifications in particular languages, and is working with those organisations and Ofqual to consider how best to enable as wide a range of languages as possible to be maintained at GCSE and A level.

The government wants to see all pupils provided with the opportunity to take a core set of academic subjects, including modern foreign languages. The number of pupils entering for a modern language GCSE has increased by 20% since 2010. There are considerable benefits to learning a second language, and the government is keen to see the range of languages at GCSE and A level preserved. To this end, the Secretary of State has written to all the exam boards to express her concern about their decision to stop awarding qualifications in some languages. She has asked the awarding organisations to continue to work with Ofqual and will launch a consultation on how best to secure the future availability of these qualifications.