UK: Exams may be getting easier but it's the plummeting number of pupils studying foreign languages that's the real problem

[Francis Hult]

Guardian

 

Exams may be getting easier but it's the plummeting number of pupils studying foreign languages that's the real problem

 

We are about to have the same debate we have at this time every year. The one where A-level and GCSE results are revealed and the same people roll out the same cliches that a trained chimpanzee could get an A nowadays and that it was far harder in the good old days. Whether true or not, this smokescreen masks a far more important concern. 

 

Results are important, but the growing difference between the curriculum in state schools and that in private and grammar schools needs urgent attention. There is an ever increasing social and wealth-based gulf opening up as the subjects being taught in these two groups of secondary schools diverge. We need to look at what students are choosing to study and what they are being offered, not just the pass mark. 

 

Full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/21/modernlanguages.gcses

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