§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are their priorities for the allocation of public funds as between funding of initial teacher training primary places in (a) French (b) Spanish (c) German and (d) each of the other European Union languages respectively. [HL1073]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandOur Languages Strategy makes clear that primary schools will be expected to offer an EU language as part of the language entitlement. We are funding initial teacher training primary places in French, Spanish and German for 2003–04 to support that expectation and to reflect their popularity. The allocation of primary language ITT places will be finalised in February.
The strategy also sets out our intention to increase the number of ITT places for modern foreign languages in subsequent years. ITT allocations for other European languages will be considered for 2004–05, based on demand from schools and ITT providers.
§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Ashton of Upholland on 13 January (WA 24) what are their priorities for the allocation of public funds for each element of the national Languages Strategy for England. [HL1074]
§ Baroness Ashton of UphollandOur main priority is to achieve a step change in language competency in this country, create an appetite for learning and broaden and enrich opportunities for language learning at school and beyond. In the current funding period, our main priorities will be the development of a recognition scheme, increasing teacher and specialist non-teacher supply, the appointment of a national180WA director for languages, the development of international partnerships and the creation of Pathfinder projects to support the introduction of an entitlement to language learning in primary schools.