The Cunning Linguist

The BBC reports today that as part of a wide ranging review of school curriculum in the UK, the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA) have proposed that languages available for study  at ages 11-14 should be widened to include those outside the EU - specifically Mandarin, Arabic and Urdu.

The BBC's presentation suggests an imminent and significant shake up of modern languages in secondary education, and emphasizes 'replacement' of european languages within Key Stage 3 (KS3) - which covers ages 11 to 14. However, materials on the QCA and National Curriculum websites suggest pupils have had this choice for some time - providing one of the core EU languages was made available to the pupil by the school.

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