Curriculum and Assessment Review
Please click on the button below to download our report “Modern Foreign Languages in a Modern Curriculum”.
DownloadPlease click on the button below to download our response to the Government’s call for evidence.
DownloadModern Foreign Languages in a Modern Curriculum
Promoting the teaching of German in British schools is central to the BGA’s charitable objectives. Our BGA Schools network includes 550 UK secondary schools that teach German.
Up until 2004, all pupils in publicly funded schools had to sit at least one GCSE in a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) – usually French, German or Spanish. Over the 20 years since the end of this mandatory requirement, the number of pupils sitting German has fallen by over 70%. A further decline in the number of pupils learning German could threaten its future viability as a school subject.
This matters. Language skills equip pupils to deal with a wider range of social situations. They also boost cognitive development. Independent schools, where languages remain widely taught, recognise these advantages. If MFL were to fall off the state-school curriculum, this would reduce opportunities for pupils in publicly funded schools to realise their potential. In short, Modern Foreign Languages should be an essential part of a modern education.
The Government has launched a Curriculum and Assessment Review, led by Professor Becky Francis. The Government has stated that the launch of the Review is an important step in its mission to “break down barriers to opportunity, deliver better life chances and enable more young people to get on”. For the reasons set out above, wider teaching of MFL will be key to delivering these objectives.
Language skills bring economic benefits, both to the pupils who learn them and to the economy as a whole. Language skills, especially German, are in demand from employers. SMEs increase their exports if they use language skills. UK deficiencies in language skills have been shown negatively to affect GDP. So wider language teaching has a direct link to the Government’s aim of “improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people”, as set out in its growth agenda.
We are concerned, therefore, that the terms of reference of the Francis Review make no mention of MFL. In addition, the members of the Review Group are not subject specialists. We have therefore prepared the paper that can be downloaded here, to bring together the evidence for MFL in a modern school curriculum. Our paper is a summary of the evidence, and we make no specific recommendations. Nonetheless, we hope that the factual evidence contained in our paper will inform policy changes that ensure Modern Foreign Languages are more widely taught in state-funded schools.