Calls for second language to be compulsory up to the age of 16

Friday 25 October 2024

It could become compulsory for all students to study a second language up to the age of 16, if proposals made by a backbench politician are approved.

Deputy Montfort Tadier, the president of the Jersey branch of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie, is asking the States to reverse a 20-year-old policy introduced from the UK which dropped the requirement for a second language up to GCSE level – an approach he argues has resulted in “a continued decimation of language teaching”.

In the report accompanying his proposition, Deputy Tadier said: “Ceasing the study of a language at the age of 14 is far too young and out of kilter with the rest of Europe.”

Under a proposition lodged this week, although Jersey schools would have to offer French for students, pupils would not have to choose to study it to GCSE level and Portuguese could become available as one of the other options within the curriculum if the proposals find favour with the States Assembly.

Pictured: Deputy Montfort Tadier is the president of the Jersey branch of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie.

Deputy Tadier contrasts the UK’s approach with that of most EU countries which he says have “a completely different approach to additional language teaching and learning in their education systems”.

“In the EU, it is not a case of if languages will be taught, but how many,” he states.

To illustrate the extent to which the popularity of languages has declined in Jersey in recent years, Deputy Tadier offers an analysis of the most recent data available on languages taken at GCSE level across island schools.

It shows that in the last academic year, there were only two secondary schools – Jersey College for Girls and Hautlieu – in which the majority of pupils obtained results in a second modern language.

While, respectively, 91% and almost 86% of Year 11 students in those schools took a second language, the figure was only 47% at Victoria College and it fell to an average of only 36% across the 11-to-16 States schools.

Deputy Tadier argued that the States Assembly has the opportunity to plot a different course for the island.

He wrote: “Jersey ultimately has a choice whether to continue to follow the UK on its continued decimation of language teaching, or to follow a more European model. And...now is the ideal opportunity to recalibrate our relationship with languages and perhaps, with Europe.”

Deputy Tadier's four-part proposition has been endorsed by his fellow committee members on the local branch of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie.

The proposals also ask schools to offer support for all students – at both primary and secondary level – “to access and develop their home language, in accordance with the rights afforded by Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

But Deputy Tadier's main focus is on the acquisition of a second language with all secondary schools being required to offer a choice of at least two modern languages, one of which must be French; and to ensure all students study at least one modern language, other than English, up to the age of 16 from September 2026.

By July next year, he wants to see a review and report undertaken into Portuguese language tuition in schools “with a view to extending the provision of optional Portuguese in the curriculum to all students”.

Deputy Tadier praises the steps taken in Jersey to ensure French is taught in all schools but he describes as “madness” the decision to take away the requirement for a modern language up to the age of 16.

“The problem with allowing languages to be dropped early, is that they will be dropped by most (in the same way that maths, science and English Literature, would no doubt be dropped, were they not compulsory), especially when there are fewer and fewer cheerleaders, encouraging language uptake,” he said.