As reported by the guardian.co.uk on Thursday 6th October
Modern languages are close to extinction in British schools, a leading educationalist is to warn teachers.
Anthony Seldon, a pioneer of innovative teaching and the headteacher of Wellington College, will tell language teachers that their subject is deeper trouble than it has been for a century.
Learning French, German or Spanish is becoming a minority pursuit, similar to learning Latin or ancient Greek, he will tell a conference convened by the Schools Network – an association of 5,500 schools from the UK and overseas – at Warwick University. He will warn that, despite being more multicultural than ever, the UK has a "little Britain" attitude, which threatens international competitiveness and overseas partnerships.
The number of pupils taking French and German GCSE has more than halved in the last 16 years. This summer, 154,221 pupils took French, while in 1995, 350,027 did. Some 60,887 students took German GCSE this summer, compared with 129,386 in 1995. The number of pupils taking A-levels in French and German almost halved between 1996 and 2010. Even the take-up of Chinese has fallen in this period, from 2,234 pupils to 2,104.
Seldon, who is also Tony Blair's biographer, will say that no one is prepared to take responsibility for the decline: "Government is looking to schools for the solution. Schools tell exam boards the subjects are too difficult and exam boards say the government should sort it out. If we leave it much longer, without drastic action, we will have gone beyond the tipping point."
Earlier this month, Michael Gove, the education secretary, told the Guardian he wanted children to start learning a foreign language from the age of five. Labour tried to make foreign languages compulsory from the age of seven early last year, but the legislation did not pass because parliament was dissolved ahead of the general election.
Seldon will urge teachers to expand the range of languages to include Arabic, Mandarin and Urdu. He will argue for languages to be taught within other subjects and will suggest schools invite business people, in particular those involved in exports, to make the case for language learning to pupils.
"Our record in language learning is uniquely bad in the developed world," he will say. "We cannot simply assume the rest of the world will learn English to accommodate us. This is a problem for society as much as an issue simply for schools."
He will argue that there is a widespread perception in schools that it is more difficult to gain good grades in languages than in other subjects.
"We need to change this urgently. We risk becoming deeply insular and cut off from abroad … Great Britain is rapidly becoming little Britain."
John Newton, headteacher of Taunton school, a public school in Somerset, said the proportion of pupils achieving A*s in languages at GCSE and A-level was much smaller than it was in other subjects. "Children are growing up thinking that Britannia rules the waves – what a mistake that is."
Meanwhile, top grades at A-level and GCSE do not necessarily indicate intelligence, the philosopher AC Grayling, who has set up a controversial private university college, has said.
Grayling's New College of the Humanities will offer degrees for £18,000 – double the maximum for other universities – from next year.
He told the annual conference of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an association of 250 public and independent schools, that it was only through interviewing students that colleges could decide which to accept.
There are students with a raft of A*s who are "no brighter" than others who look "less brilliant" on paper, he said. He said he had interviewed two girls, one with two As and a B at A-level and another with all A*s and As.
"The girl with two As and a B was a much more interesting and lively candidate, much more thoughtful," he said, though the other girl had been "extremely well taught".
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