Alarm as GCSE pupils shun foreign languages

The popularity of foreign language lessons has slumped alarmingly since the Government made them optional for GCSE pupils, a survey showed today.

The study laid bare the growing social gulf between children who learn foreign languages and those who do not.

Private schools insist their pupils learn at least one foreign language until 16 at the earliest but fewer than one in three state schools does the same and the proportion has halved in just one year, according to a poll by the National Centre for Languages.

The situation is worsening at a worryingly fast rate. In schools that made languages optional, 54 per cent of pupils will take a GCSE in French, German or Spanish next summer - but in 2006 the figure drops to just 41 per cent.

Entries to French and German have been declining for several years, even before the Government admitted defeat.

Now pupils would rather study media studies, food technology or computing instead, teachers told researchers.

Family holidays have helped shore up the popularity of Spanish but German is in serious decline, the survey showed.

Now some schools offer "community" languages such as Urdu and Bengali.