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Bengali and Mandarin should have same priority as French and German, says Ofsted
Last updated at 16:37pm on 22.02.08
Students could learn Bengali and Mandarin in schools instead of French and German
It warns, however, that the teacher training system is holding youngsters back because most "community language" teachers are not qualified.
Schools no longer have to offer lessons in a major European language, but can opt to teach other world languages instead.
A Government review last year said it will be crucial to teach minority languages as China and India grow in economic influence.
Ofsted said it found when community language teachers were given the opportunity to gain qualified teacher status, their teaching improved.
But today's report warns that few students are taking up places on the "limited" postgraduate training courses in community languages.
The watchdog calls for action "to stem the decline in the number of entries for GCSE community languages and to promote them up to and beyond GCSE level".
The Training and Development Agency for Schools said teacher training providers are free to offer a wider range of languages.
It said the "barrier" is the extent to which other languages are taught to whole classes in schools and the availability of suitable training placements.
Reader views (13)
Bengali and Mandarin are singled out because of their growing importance globally and economically. In 20 years' time these are going to be of far greater importance than either French or German. You do know what's going on in India and China at the moment, don't you?
- Charlie, Soho
The most dishonest argument for learning a foreign language is the economic argument. Listen to the politicians of Europe and compare their skill in presenting a complex argument in English: then contrast it with the embarrassing fact that practically none of our politicians can present their case in a major European language... Blair is fluent and nearly comprehensible. Learn a foreign language for pleasure and use it when suitable but take advantage of the acceptance of English as a universal language. The Scots have! I write as a teacher of Modern languages of 40 years experience.
- C Adams, Frace
Actually these languages could be useful to know when you go to a Chinese or Indian restaurant where these languages are spoken.
Then you will be able to overhear any comments made by the staff to each other concerning your order.
- P.Robinson, Northants
"NO IT SHOULDN'T. French and German should be part of the curriculum because they along with Spanish are the predominant global languages.
- Minime, South East England"
Think you'll find Mandarin is more of a global language than ANY of the three mentioned above, and predominant is stretching it a bit in the case of German.
- Md, London
China, Russia and India are going to be the drivers and the centres of the world economy over the next 50 years. Most of Europe's energy now comes from Russia, manufactured goods from India and China. For the UK to thrive economically we will have to trade with these nations and a working knowledge of their languages will be very important.
As for Gaelic or welsh (Rhonda Valley, Islingotn) - these are minority languages, which had almost died out. It is difficult to see how devoting school time and money to these languages will beneficial to the UK.
- Jeremy E, London UK
I think that at a time when record number of schools are failing and when children are leaving schools without the ability to read, the bureaucrats at Ofsted should be doing more to correct this than suggesting everyone should speak Bengali and Mandarin. Ofsted is actually a pointless institution - more schools fail now than before Ofsted was created!
- Cameron, London, W2
If GCSE Oral French is deemed too stressful, then God help those who attempt Mandarin! Unlike most languages, it is a tonal language where you have to sing your words, and singing off-key can turn "to buy a horse" into "to sell your mother", both being pronounced "mai ma" but sung in a different pitch of voice.
Given this difficulty, a GCSE Mandarin course is so dumbed down so that you are not even required to tell the time, except on the hour and the half hour, and you spend two hours learning to say "I have a little cat" (wo you ji xiao mao).
- Charles Siu, London UK
French and German are a waste of time. Spanish would be a far more useful language to learn as you can use it in Spain, Latin America, the Caribbean and mainland America.
- Squiz, Islington
And what about Welsh or Gaelic? These are languages spoken by people who form part of the UK but apparently languages spoken on a different continent thousands of miles away are more important.
- Rhonda Valley, Islington
NO IT SHOULDN'T. French and German should be part of the curriculum because they along with Spanish are the predominant global languages. If these people are in our country then they learn the languages WE speak not the other way around. They are in our schools, overcrowding them and taking the places needed by our children therefore they learn our curriculum. Stop this stupidity and stand up for OUR country
- Minime, South East England
Good old Labour Quangos - you can't keep a good one down for long! Taxpayer funded, not accountable, left wing, diversity embracing academics, with woolly thinking and leather elbow patches.
- Gary Parker, amersham
Half the children in UK do not speak even proper English. GO to any playground in London and all you will hear are swear words. Listen to the television and some of the programmes are so violent and the language deplorable - Go to any school in China or Bengal and see how revered teachers and parents are! In the UK it is becoming a hotbed for terrorists to enjoy the perks that citizens of UK themselves are denied. Take the elderly for instance!
- J. Nichols, Indonesia
Why should the English language itself be any different to the one hundred and one other exclusively English national identities being removed from the English? "Learning another language" shall now be dictated rather than a choice?
Oh boy - what a sorry state of affairs!
- Rogan, DFW Texas
