URGENT Get in touch with your MP to save language exams

Tell all your parliamentary candidates what’s important to you

It’s really easy to get in touch with your MP and now is a good time to be letting them know what is important to you. http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/contacting-your-mp/

Help raise the issue of the dropping of language GCSEs and A Levels by contacting your MP and parliamentary candidates. Sample letter below.

Nick de Bois MP tabled a Commons debate (23/3/15) on the planned cuts to GCSEs in Dutch, Gujarati, Portuguese, Persian and Turkish and A Levels Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Gujarati, Modern Hebrew, Japanese, Modern Greek, Panjabi, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Urdu & Turkish. Some MPs from all the different parties have joined the campaign and promised to do something to retain the examinations.

Has your MP?

This is urgent! If we do nothing these languages will no longer have GCSEs. It isn’t just about the language(s) you teach, it’s important that we all stand together for supplementary schools.

Note well: these exams are still available for 2015 and 2016. Enter your pupils now.

Contacting your MP
www.parliament.uk
Information on how you are able to contact your local MP

More information on how the campaign is going on the Speak to the Future website.

Here is my letter to my MP Harriet Harman, feel free to adapt it for your MP.

Dear Harriet,

The three main examination boards, AQA, OCR and EdExcel have all said they will not be redeveloping GCSEs and A levels for lesser taught languages.

Eg. OCR has said there are insufficient entries but 2,197 children took a Portuguese GCSE and 1,462 children took a Turkish GCSE in 2014. Yet OCR says it is uneconomical to offer these languages. They are also dropping Persian and Gujarati.

AQA says they are dropping A level Bengali, Polish, Panjabi, Modern Hebrew – 4,498 children took Polish GCSE in 2014 and 900 took the A2. These figures are rising year on year.

EdExcel have not yet pronounced officially which language they will be dropping but they have only confirmed that they are redeveloping French, German and Spanish. EdExcel are the accrediting body for Arabic, Japanese, Italian and Russian. There were 3,671 Arabic entries for GCSE in 2014, 1,019 for Japanese, 4,929 for Italian, 2,400 for Russian – are they planning to drop these? We don’t know. Please find out.

In the majority of cases, the languages are taught at home and/or in supplementary/after school projects, generally community-led and self-funded. All the Dept. for Education is providing is the opportunity for those young people to have their language skills recognised and accredited through the education system. The teaching is not funded by the public purse.

Quite aside from the importance that community-led supplementary schools have in terms of community cohesion, children’s self-development and resilience, and the impact of bilingualism on all learning, quite aside from all these benefits there is a massive economic benefit to facilitating the development of heritage language skills in British children.

Deficient language skills and the assumption that “everyone speaks English” are costing the UK economy around £48bn a year, or 3.5% of GDP, according to research by Professor James Foreman-Peck for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). And that deficit is greatest in new and emerging markets.

Please could you speak up on my behalf and on behalf of all your constituents and safeguard examinations in lesser-taught languages.