LEARNING a second language at school should be compulsory, a Deputy has said, after it emerged that the number of Jersey students with a modern language GCSE has decreased over the past five years.
Deputy Montfort Tadier, who is president of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie’s Jersey Branch, said that he was looking to work closely with government schools to determine resourcing and curricula before he takes the idea to the States Assembly.
Earlier this month, Deputy Tadier submitted a written question to Children’s and Education Minister Inna Gardiner asking for data on the number of students taking modern foreign language GCSEs.
The response revealed that there has been an overall decrease in the percentage of pupils with one or more modern language GCSE, falling from 66.2% in 2018/19 to 55.5% in 2022/23.
Where 697 students had taken a foreign language qualification in 2018/19, only 546 had done so last year. The breakdown by school showed that at some institutions, the number had dropped more sharply.
For example, the largest decline was at Haute Vallée, where the 130 students who took a language in 2018/19 had more than halved to 54 in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, Hautlieu decreased only from 130 to 103 – and one school saw an increase, with the number at Les Quennevais rising from 56 to 67.
Deputy Tadier acknowledged that factors such as staffing and funding could affect the differences between schools, saying: “If you’re a parent and you want your children to do languages, there are certain schools you might send them to, perhaps where they are compulsory or where there is a bigger language department.
“Sometimes it is simply school policy and a high uptake is indicative that the school has a requirement for their students to do a foreign language GCSE.”
He added: “There has been a language strategy launched last year, so I accept there’s a lot of good work going on from government to do with all languages.
“But I do want to ask why a second language is no longer compulsory at GCSE and I would like to get back to the point where it is.
“It also means that children that already have another language under their belt should be offered the option to do another.
“It is all about trying to move away from the general problem in the anglophone world of monolingualism.
“There’s a strong argument as to why French should remain a special language for the Island, but any European or world languages that people might want to learn are important for the Island and our connection to the world.
“What I’m looking to do is work closely with government schools. We can’t go in there and impose a solution, but we need to look at resourcing and how languages are valued in the curriculum.
“I understand that all schools have different pressures and demographics.”
This decrease is reflective of a wider trend in the UK where entries for language GCSEs stand at less than 60% of those in the peak year of 2001.
The decline dates back to the UK government’s decision to make the subject optional from 2004.
