A BACKBENCH politician seeking to make a second language compulsory for 14 to 16-year-olds has described a ministerial attempt – from a member of his own political party – to launch a review into the matter as “a pretext for inaction”.
Obliging all pupils to study at least one language – as well as English – to GCSE level forms a central part of a proposition lodged by Deputy Montfort Tadier which is due to be debated in the States Assembly next week.
Education Minister Rob Ward, a Reform Jersey colleague of Deputy Tadier, has put forward amendments to the original proposition in which he will seek Members’ support for a review and consultation to be carried out before a decision is taken.
Deputy Tadier, president of the Jersey branch of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie, is seeking to reverse a 20-year-old policy introduced in line with the UK which dropped the requirement for a second language to be studied up to GCSE level – an approach he argues has resulted in “a continued decimation of language teaching”.
“Ceasing the study of a language at the age of 14 is far too young and out of kilter with the rest of Europe,” Deputy Tadier states in a report accompanying his proposition.
The St Brelade Deputy added that he considered it “madness” to take away the requirement for a modern language up to the age of 16, expressing fears that there were “fewer and fewer cheerleaders” advocating the many benefits of being able to communicate in multiple languages.
In response to the call for the curriculum to be widened by September 2026, Deputy Ward said it would be “wholly inappropriate” to consider such a change without seeking advice and research through the Jersey Curriculum Council, which has a statutory role in this area.
Deputy Ward’s amendments call for this review and consultation to be carried out by December of this year, alongside a similar review advocated by Deputy Tadier into whether Portuguese should be offered to all those aged 14 to 16, on an optional basis.
In outlining the reasons for the review in the report accompanying his amendments, Deputy Ward stated: “The proposer acknowledges that this may require additional teachers, but at this time neither the proposer nor the minister have been able to quantify this.
“The minister is also keen to understand any impact on students’ choices from a mandatory language option [for ages 14 to 16].
“Jersey, like any other jurisdiction, has a diverse range of students with differing levels of academic ability and vocational ambition – it will be important to assess that any changes are not to the detriment of any cohort of students.”
Asked by the JEP for a response to the minister’s amendments, Deputy Tadier said that while he was comfortable with some of the proposed changes, he did not accept others.
“The review is a pretext for inaction – referring those matters to the curriculum council will not achieve any change,” he said. “This is a simple political decision about whether the skills that are acquired through the learning of a second language are considered fundamental or just a ‘nice to have’.”
