§ Mr. Deakinsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the total cost of provision for foreign language teaching, other than mother-tongue teaching, in maintained schools; and what assessment he has made of the economic benefit resulting from this teaching.
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§ Mr. DunnInformation on the total cost of provision for foreign language teaching in schools is not available. The largest element of the cost relates to staffing: full results from the 1984 secondary school staffing survey showing the number of foreign language teachers and teacher deployment on foreign languages will be available shortly. My right hon. Friend is aware of studies by various organisations of the relationship between foreign language learning and overseas trade and will be taking these — and employer responses to the consultative document "Foreign Languages in the School Curriculum" — into account in the policy statement on foreign languages he proposes to issue later this year.