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Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Telegraph
Spanish overtakes French as most popular foreign language GCSE
Holidays to the Balearic Islands have helped make Spanish the most popular foreign language choice at GCSE, a union has claimed. GCSE entries for Spanish rose by 1.6 per cent to 131,965 this summer, provisional data for England show, edging French off the top spot for the first time in more than a decade. Spanish has risen in popularity in recent years, with GCSE entries jumping almost half since 2014, when 89,450 teenagers took the subject. The boost may be in part fuelled by growing British interest in the Spanish islands as a holiday destination, one union has claimed. Pepe Di'Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the rising dominance of Spanish at GCSE level was because 'young people may be more familiar with the Spanish language, because of the popularity of Spain, the Balearics and Canary Islands as holiday destinations'. Spain is now the top foreign holiday choice for Britons, with 17.8 million visits made in 2023, according to research published by the House of Commons. The country's islands are now so popular among UK holidaymakers that many have seen a rise in anti-tourist protests in the past year, including in Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza. France is still the second choice for Britons travelling abroad, but is thought to be falling out of favour among young people in search of cheap, sun-filled beach holidays. Meanwhile, trips to Germany dropped by more than 900,000 between 2019 and 2023, meaning the country is no longer in the top 10, as new destinations such as Turkey and Poland also creep up the chart. It may explain why French and German are now both on the wane at GCSE while Spanish sees increasing traction. The number of teenagers sitting GCSE French has slumped by a fifth since 2014, while German entries have dwindled by around 45 per cent over that time, according to Telegraph analysis of Ofqual figures. In total, 128,155 pupils are expecting their GCSE results in French this summer, marking a 1.9 per cent fall compared to last year. German entries dropped 7.6 per cent to 32,430 across the same period, having collapsed over the past decade or so. There are fears that German could die out altogether as a language choice among British pupils, with the number of children taking the subject at GCSE this year representing around a quarter of those sitting either French and Spanish. Provisional data for England show a similar pattern at at A-level, with entries for French and German down by 8.3 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively, while entries for Spanish rose 1.4 per cent this summer. Mr Di'Iasio said: 'The growing popularity of Spanish is really good news as there has been a long-term decline in modern foreign languages, but we do need to do more at a national level to boost language learning more generally.' Others have pointed to a lack of specialist teachers in state schools under a worsening recruitment and retention crisis. Languages are not compulsory at GCSE level, but many schools choose to make them part of their core syllabus. Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'With recruitment challenges really biting in schools, some simply don't have the teachers they need to offer courses in certain subjects. 'Teacher recruitment targets were missed in computing, chemistry, physics and modern foreign languages in the last couple of years, and these are among the subjects which experienced a fall in entries.' Statistics, performing arts and music were the biggest risers in GCSE subjects this year, according to provisional Ofqual data published on Thursday, with engineering, German and physics recording the biggest falls in entries.
Telegraph
10-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour's ideological attack on private schools is backfiring spectacularly
Labour had a cunning plan. It was to recruit 6,500 new teachers with the money Sir Keir Starmer's government would raise by slapping private schools with VAT and business rates. The state education sector would receive an injection of £1.5bn, which, along with the newly trained teachers, would also include career advice and mental health support for pupils. The nation was to be taught a lesson in equality. Resources would be diverted from private schools to state schools in an attempt to level the playing field. But the flagship policy appears to be falling apart spectacularly. Instead of extracting £1.5bn from private schools, Treasury analysis has suggested that the new tax policy could cost the Government an extra £650m per year. Data published by the Department for Education last week revealed an exodus of over 11,000 pupils from private schools in England alone, far outstripping the Government's estimate of only 3,000 students transferring to the state education system from fee-paying establishments. Experts expect this number will be materially higher when data from across the country is added to the total. By some industry estimates, 23 independent schools have announced plans for closure or possible closure since the Government implemented VAT on school fees, causing grave concern to both state and private school leaderships. The Association of School and College Leaders, which represents state and private headteachers, said the new VAT policy is 'rushed', with ministers being accused of failing to adequately prepare for the added pressure on the state sector from pupils fleeing higher private school fees – many of whom will have special needs. It now appears that the main benefit of a policy so heavily laden with financial and social costs may not, after all, materialise, as Labour stands accused of abandoning its manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers. The Government, pointing to more than 2,000 teachers recruited last year, is still claiming it is on the right track to achieving its goal. However, following revelations that the number of primary school teachers have fallen by nearly 3,000, it has now emerged that the Department for Education is not counting them towards the target in a bid to gloss over the fact that the overall number of teachers in state funded schools in England fell in 2024-25. The Government has blamed the country's falling birth rate, which means there are fewer children being enrolled at primary schools. As a result, it 'would clearly be nonsensical for primaries to be part of the pledge', it says. The plan – in the immortal words of Blackadder – is truly so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel. Teachers aren't surprised. A headmaster of a private school with three decades of experience told me that all teachers in a leadership position are painfully aware of the challenges of training and retaining primary school teachers. Labour's ideological rigidity will only make matters significantly worse. The policy of preventing state schools from recruiting so-called 'unqualified' teachers meant there was never a realistic chance of recruiting that many new teachers over Labour's timeframe. With the Government now reneging on its flagship policy pledge of providing more state school teachers, what justification can there possibly be for clobbering private schools with higher fees? So far, the policy has resulted in school closures and the uprooting of settled children and imposing them on an already struggling state sector. Why are we attacking one of the few excellent industries left in Britain? The exasperation across the whole education sector is palpable. The answer, of course, is ideology. In the quest of equality of outcomes, the lowest common denominator is the inevitable conclusion.
