Why Britain Will Continue to Lag Behind in Languages ; ANALYSIS GCSE RESULTS

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Yesterday's GCSE results would have been a good news story, but for one thing. The appalling state of language provision in secondary schools was underlined again, giving renewed impetus to the calls from teachers' leaders for a U-turn over the Government's decision to make the subject voluntary for pupils from the age of 14. International comparisons show there is no other country in Europe which allows its pupils to drop languages at 14. Indeed, most insist they start them in the primary school.

Happily, progress is being made here, with hundreds of specialist language teachers being trained for teaching in primary schools for the first time.

Unhappily, it …