a mere 104 days later...

Dear Mr/Ms Bellars,

Thank you for your email of 3 December to the Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister, regarding the importance of language teaching in schools.  As a member of the Secretary of State’s correspondence team, I have been asked to reply and I apologise for the delay in doing so. The Coalition Government is fully committed to the teaching of languages in schools, not only for its social and economic benefits, but also because learning a language helps pupils to understand the different cultures of people around the world.  In his speech at the Westminster Academy on 6 September 2010, the Secretary of State announced that learning a modern or ancient language would be one of the core subjects of the new English Baccalaureate, along with English, mathematics, science and a humanities subject.  Further detail was included in the White Paper The Importance of Teaching, published on 24 November 2010 and we expect that this will lead to an increase in take up of languages at Key Stage 4.    We know that primary school teachers and others have worked very hard over the last few years to stimulate an early interest in language learning, and a recent NfER study showed that 92 per cent of primary schools are now teaching foreign languages within class time at Key Stage 2.  The Government believes that learning a language at primary school can inspire children with a love of languages that will stay with them throughout their secondary education and beyond.  Given the importance of language learning, and the benefits of an early start, Ministers expect that the majority of primary schools that are already teaching languages will continue to do so. On 7 June 2010, the Minister of State for Schools announced that we would be carrying out a review of the National Curriculum to return it to its original purpose - a core national entitlement organised around subject disciplines. The review will consider the place of languages within the National Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, and will ensure that our core curriculum can compare with those of the highest performing countries around the world.  In designing the new curriculum, we plan to consult a wide range of academics, teachers and others with an interest in what is taught in schools.  More details about how to contribute to the review will be announced shortly via our website at http://www.education.gov.uk/, and I hope that you will feel able to respond.

Yours sincerely, Kate Jarrett  Correspondence Team www.education.gov.uk    Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0102172. To contact the Department for Education, please visitwww.education.gov.uk/contactus

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Alex Bellars  to alex.bellars, Unmonitored.AC.

show details 10:26 AM (3 minutes ago)

Dear Kate,

Thanks for the reply. You will note that it has not taken me 104 days to respond to your email. May I question the wisdom of the Deputy Prime Minister having a cyber-presence if his correspondence team is not adequately-resourced enough to maintain it for him?

I will indeed be visiting the site below in order to contribute to the debate, as I feel that we are in danger of embarking upon a potentially disastrous, ideologically-led path which will in fact put our education system BACK forty or more years, rather than moving ahead into the 21st century.

Alex Bellars