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Why are fewer students choosing to study foreign languages at gcse? By Richard Garner

Why are we asking this question now?

Yesterday's GCSE results showed another alarming drop in the number of candidates taking a modern foreign language exam. French fell by 13.2 per cent since last year to 236,189 – meaning just over one in three youngsters in the age cohort had sat it. German went down by 14.2 per cent to 90,311 and even Spanish, which has shown a rise in recent years, fell by 0.5 per cent to 62,143. According to heads and teachers' leaders, the slump will mean a reduction in pupils' job opportunities when they leave school.

What has caused the decline?

The main reason is the Government's decision, which came into force two years ago, to make languages a voluntary subject on the national curriculum from the age of 14. This year's cohort is the first to have gone through the two years of GCSE study with this edict in place.

There are other contributory factors, too. While language take-up has declined, subjects such as media, film and television studies (up 25.9 per cent to 56,521 this year) have shown an increase – prompting headteachers’ leaders to warn that some schools are encouraging pupils to take subjects which are perceived to be easier so as to boost their ranking in government exam league tables. There is also research to show that employers when looking to fill a vacancy are less likely to look for a candidate's languages qualifications than their passes in Maths and English. This message, it is argued, has also got through to schools with the result that they are less likely to push a child into taking languages.

How else has the decision affected language teaching?

According to a survey by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching, two-thirds of state schools no longer make languages compulsory from the age of 14. The study shows a stark divide between the state and independent sector – where 97 per cent of schools still make lan­guages compulsory. It has led language teachers to warn that language learning is becoming a preserve of the middle classes, with struggling inner-city schools the most likely to abandon compulsory lessons.

Since 2001, the year before ministers made the decision to make the subject voluntary, figures have shown that – while the number of GCSE's being taken has increased by 100,000, French has decreased from 347,007 to 236,189 (a drop of 32 per cent) and German gone down from 135,133 to 90,311 (a decrease of 33 per cent). Interestingly, though, the impact on A-level take-up is not so great with both French and German registering an improvement in take-up this summer. The feeling is the high-flyers are still sticking with the subject and taking it through to A-level – enhancing the idea that it is becoming a middle-class preserve.

Why, then, did the Government take its decision?

Ministers will privately admit they had not realised the extent to which languages provision would decline when they first decided to make it voluntary. But there were concerns expressed at the time. The am­bassadors to the UK of France, Spain, Germany and Italy combined to warn – through an interview in Thelndependent – that it would have catastrophic consequences. They also revealed that it was becoming harder to continue with cultural exchanges between schools because there were fewer in the UK with sufficient language provision to make them worthwhile. This, they argued, had the potential for diminishing the UK's standing in Europe because the country was being seen as the language "dunce" of Europe.

Notwithstanding this, the Government went ahead with its decision as it was worried by its inability to cut truancy rates amongst 14 to 16-year-olds. Ministers argued that there was no point in forcing youngsters who had no interest in languages to study the subject. If they were bored with the curriculum, they would simply bunk off school. As a palliative to the languages lobby, they launched a major drive to improve the take-up of languages in primary school – announcing that, from the end of the decade, every child would have the right to learn a language from the age of seven. For the first time, too, they started training language teachers to work in primary schools. Ministers also introduced a languages ladder learning scheme – which works like music in that you can take a grade exam in the subject whenever you are ready for it – to supplement GCSE's.