26/07/2007

Language requirement queried by head teachers

At the recent annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers, delegates agreed that French and German should be scrapped in favour of Punjabi and Swahili in some schools - a move that could make life easier for some children relocating to the UK from countries such as India and Africa. The teachers urged the government to remove its requirement in the national curriculum that children between the ages of 11 and 14 study at least one European foreign language. They said the linguistic abilities of large numbers of ethnic minority and refugee children were being ignored because they had to learn another European language as well as getting to grips with English.

Back