§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals his Department has(a) to promote school exchanges with the Soviet Union and (b) to promote the learning of the Russian language in schools; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. JacksonMy right hon. Friend visited the Soviet Union last October and concluded an agreement with the Soviet chairman of the State Committee for Public Education which envisaged a programme of up to 50 school exchanges on each side by the end of the 1991–92 academic year. In this, the first year of the programme, 10 school exchanges on each side have been arranged and are under way. In the next academic year, 1989–90, it is proposed that 20 school exchanges can be arranged, rising to 35 exchanges in academic year 1990–91 and 50 exchanges in academic year 1991–92. At that stage up to 2,000 pupils from each country will be involved.
The aim of the programme is to use the medium of school-to-school twinning to promote a greater degree of mutual understanding among young people of both countries through a wide programme of exchange of schoolchildren and teachers, letters, photographs, tapes and project work, for example in mathematics, science and computing. Language-based exchanges will be a significant component, but the intention is to include also the study of subjects in which the practical elements can be shared.
The 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 in the Education (National Curriculum) (Modern Foreign Languages) Order 1989 as eligible to be taught as a national curriculum foundation subject. 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.