The government has been urged to “expand, rather than downgrade” language hubs, after a report warned pupils in poorer areas are 20 per cent less likely to study a language at GCSE.

HEPI’s report The Language Crisis: Arresting decline found just 2.97 per cent of A-levels taken in 2024 were for modern foreign languages, classical subjects, Welsh and Irish.

It also found physical education A-level had more uptake than French, German and classical languages combined.

Author Megan Bowler, a DPhil student in classics at the University of Oxford, has called on the government to “look to expand, rather than downgrade” language hubs, which Schools Week revealed would face cuts in December.

‘Huge challenges’

Language learning now faces “huge challenges”, according to Bower, with fewer pupils choosing the subjects along with persistent difficulties in teacher recruitment.

The study found language teacher recruitment “consistently falls well below government targets”, with just 43 per cent of the target reached in 2024.

Spanish has overtaken French as the most popular language GCSE. The uptake of French has now stabilised after a sharp decline in the 2000s and 2010s.

German entries continue to fall, despite this being the foreign language most sought after by UK employers, the report said.

Disproportionate uptake

The estimated percentage of year 11 pupils studying a language for GCSE is more than 20 percentage points higher in more affluent areas (69 per cent v 46 per cent).

At AS and A-level, just three per cent of students studying German and six per cent studying French or Spanish are eligible for free school meals.

HEPI has again called for language learning to be mandatory for pupils up to the age of 18, as it did in 2020.

It has also recommended action on teacher recruitment by “easing the pathway for international language teachers” and providing training pathways for existing teachers to deliver more than one language.

Another recommendation is to “revitalise” language hubs, which were scaled back by government in December. The hubs, which were set up to allow teachers to help colleagues in other schools by sharing “best practice”, are expected to be “reshaped” by Labour. 

Bower said the DfE should “look to expand, rather than downgrade” the hub-based approach to create networks for languages beyond French, German and Spanish, which should help state schools benefit from independent school resources.

Nick Gibb, former minister for schools (pictured left) said “in an increasingly competitive world economy, we owe it to the next generation to ensure they are as prepared as their contemporaries oversees to compete in this environment”.