HC Deb 17 March 2003 vol 401 cc566-7W
Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children from refugee and asylum-seeking families in schools in England do not have English as a first language; if he will list the schemes to teach them English; and how much the Department has spent and will spend on such teaching in each year from 2001–02 to 2005–06. [102289]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

Approximately 632,000 (9.3 per cent.) of pupils in maintained schools in England are recorded as having a mother tongue other than English although it is not possible to determine how many of these have an asylum seeking or refugee background as Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are not required to provide such information.

Support for bilingual learners is through mainstream provision rather than separate schemes to teach English. There is no separate funding for teaching English as an additional language, but the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant worth £154 million in 2001–02 and £155 million in 2002–03 and 2003–04 provides support for minority ethnic pupils at risk of underachievement and for those whose first language is not English. This includes British born children as well as those from asylum seeking and refugee families. From April 2003 the Vulnerable Children Grant worth £84 million for the next three years will provide support to help schools and LEAs meet the needs of a range of vulnerable pupils including those from asylum seeking backgrounds.

Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many maintained secondary schools taught(a) French, (b) German, (c) Spanish, (d) Italian, (e) Latin and (f) Greek at (i) GCSE and (ii) A-level in each year since 1995. [102560]

Mr. Miliband

We do not collect data on how many maintained secondary schools taught French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin and Greek at GCSE and A-level since 1995. We do hold information on the number of pupils in all maintained schools taking GCSE and A-level examinations in these subjects since 1995. They are as follows:

A level
(a) French (b) German (c) Spanish (d) Italian (e) Latin (f) Greek
20021 — — — — — —
2001 7,613 4,081 1,777 219 252 10
2000 7,334 4,008 1,673 213 241 15
1999 8,416 4,480 1,792 185 269 11
1998 9,136 4,714 1,697 181 308 15
1997 9.842 4,555 1,677 181 312 26
1996 10.409 4,758 1,525 156 327 20
1995 10,407 4,606 1,276 154 377 29
1 2002 A level figures are not currently available.