§ Mr. Harry BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he plans to encourage more teaching of the Russian language; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe national curriculum will include a modern foreign language as a foundation subject at secondary level to be studied by all pupils between the ages of 11 and 16. Russian is among those modern foreign languages specified as eligible for inclusion in the national curriculum, within the framework of the proposals announced by my right hon. Friend in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Knapman) on 3 March, at columns338–39. Within this framework, my right hon. Friend is encouraging schools to offer a greater diversity of languages, including Russian, and we are providing education support grants for pilot projects in some local education authorities in England to promote the preparation and implementation of plans for language diversification.
§ Mr. Harry BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the numbers of foreign 471W language assistants, by subjects, in maintained schools for each year from 1978–79 to the last year for which figures are available.
Mr. JacksonThe numbers are as follows:
Year French German Spanish Italian Russian Total 1978–79 1,710 668 162 17 4 2,561 1979–80 1,783 718 187 16 4 2,708 1980–81 1,558 640 150 16 2 2,366 1981–82 1,314 539 145 16 4 2,018 1982–83 1,279 524 127 12 3 1,945 1983–84 1,301 523 138 11 1 1,974 1984–85 1,241 537 132 8 2 1,920 1985–86 1,211 502 126 7 2 1,848 1986–87 1,260 522 149 7 2 1,940 1987–88 1,503 556 186 12 2 2,259 1988–89 1,371 539 163 7 2 2,082