The decline in pupils studying foreign languages is of grave concern - Yorkshire Post Letters

I’m writing in response to your article about GCSE results in modern foreign languages (MFL) and especially French, German and Spanish as printed in The Yorkshire Post on August 22.

The Gov.UK website shows the overall number of entries in these three languages growing by 13 per cenr between 2019 and 2025. There are other foreign languages studied at GCSE including Mandarin and Asian languages spoken at home.

Other students take GCSE Welsh or Irish. The Association for Language Learning (ALL) website states that 45 per cent of the cohort are entered for a language GCSE. If it’s assumed that there’s a 32 per cent difference in MFL entries between the least and the most academic, then the statistics suggest that even at what are the most academically successful schools only 60 per cent of 16-year-olds are studying a language. I generalise but the point is informative.

ALL President Judith Rifeser states that ‘the number of students studying A level languages continues to be a matter of grave concern.’

More are studying Spanish at A level but uptake for French and particularly German has declined. According to Rifeser ‘this raises concerns about the UK’s ability to produce enough qualified linguists for the country’s needs.’

MFL at A level is demanding although arguably less so than when almost half a century ago I ploughed through often inscrutable set texts in French and Russian. However, the UK is the only country in Europe where an 18-year-old could access the most prestigious universities like Oxbridge without a post GCSE level foreign language qualification.

No letter from me is complete without mention of the elephant in the room which is Brexit. I taught A level MFL for over 20 years. Part of the carrot to attract and enthuse was freedom of movement, allowing capable students the opportunity after A level to hone their language skills on mainland Europe as I did 40 years ago.

This precious freedom was casually and callously removed from our academic youth by Tory Philistines enjoying tacit Labour support and is now the preserve of Northern Irish professional footballers.

I ask again for someone to justify such lunacy. I know why it’s the case I can explain precisely but no one justifies. I’ve not held my breath fortunately. I’d have suffocated by now to the delight of the Brexiteers but as their self-appointed scourge I won’t offer them that satisfaction.

I turn 65 shortly. A fantastic birthday present would be a commitment for the UK to rejoin the EU Erasmus student exchange scheme.