Following the coalition's overhaul of the exam system, the OCR exam board will be dropping GCSEs and A-levels in Turkish, Portuguese, Persian, Gujarati and Dutch, while AQA are to end A-levels in Polish, Punjabi, Modern Hebrew and Bengali.
There have been a campaign against examination boards withdrawing these languages as exam subjects in England. Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan has also written a letter to the boards telling them to take back their decision. Moreover, a petition to keep Polish A-level has more than 14,000 signatures.
In her letter, Morgan said that there have been many people from ethnic minority communities who have approached her, expressing their fears about these languages being axed from the syllabus. She also said that these students will not get the opportunity to study their “mother tongue” and “therefore calling on you to work with the regulator to secure the future of these qualifications and reverse your decision to cancel them.”
Nicky Morgan also believes that a future Conservative government would "guarantee the future"of these languages at GCSE and A-Level stages. She also said that the future Conservative government would launch an “immediate consultation" on "how best to secure the future of these qualifications."
The Education Secretary has been supported by the British Academy. Prof Nigel Vincent, who leads on languages for the British Academy said, "Our rich multicultural society is itself a soft power asset for the UK. There is a wealth of untapped linguistic resource amongst the school age population in the UK."
Prof Vincent further added, “This needs to be mobilised, supported and given recognition through accreditation. The academy has called for strategic oversight by government and relevant funders regarding higher education language provision, where similar issues around take-up of languages exist."
On the other hand, Labour's Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt believes that Nicky Morgan's comments regarding a future Conservative government saving foreign languages is a ploy by the Conservatives. He states, "This is a desperate attempt by the flailing Tory campaign to undo the damage that has been caused by David Cameron's chaotic exam changes. The public will be right to be deeply sceptical of any attempt by the Tories - at this late stage - to ditch their own policy, when they have time and again refused to change course.”
Hunt further said, "The Tories will be judged on their damaging education record. Labour has been clear from day one: we will save these important language qualifications."
