§ Mr. Colin ShepherdTo ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers qualified to teach the Japanese language are currently employed by local education authorities and teaching in(a) secondary schools to GCSE and (b) in sixth forms teaching to A-level; and if he will make a statement on the teaching of Japanese in English schools.
§ Mr. ForthThe information requested is not collected centrally. All secondary school pupils will be required to study a modern foreign language as part of the national curriculum. Japanese is one of the 19 languages eligible to he a national curriculum foundation subject.