The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-02-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the announcement by the Home Office in January, whether a fundamental review of interpreter services has been commissioned, and if so, what are its terms of reference and timetable.
Lord Bates
An internal review of interpretation service provision is planned to commence during 2016/17. No specific actions have taken place thus far.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-03-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Afghan interpreters, and (2) members of their immediate families, have been relocated to the UK under (a) the ex-gratia redundancy scheme, and (b) the intimidation policy.
Lord Keen of Elie
Up to the end of February, 262 Afghan locally engaged civilians along with 356 members of their families have been relocated to the UK under the ex gratia redundancy scheme.
No locally engaged civilians have been relocated to the UK under the current intimidation policy. One former staff member has been relocated to the UK under a previous version of the policy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-04-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have made to the Language Trends Survey 2015–16, published by the British Council on 18 April.
Lord Nash
The Department welcomes the survey; in particular its findings on the steps primary schools are taking to improve the quality of language teaching since it became compulsory in maintained primary schools in September 2014. By introducing the EBacc, we have stopped the decline in modern foreign languages seen in the last decade, where 200,000 fewer GCSE students studied a modern language in 2010 than in 2002.
Last year’s results showed 20% more pupils are taking languages at GCSE than in 2010 while A level entries in modern languages have increased by nearly 4% since 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many additional modern foreign language teachers they estimate will be needed in order to achieve the target of 90 per cent of mainstream pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate by 2020.
Lord Nash
The proposals in the English Baccalaureate consultation launched on 3 November imply an increase in the numbers of teachers of languages needed. The EBacc-related increase is over and above the additional teachers needed to keep up with the rise in the secondary school pupil population.
We will forecast the demand for additional Modern Foreign Language teachers following the conclusion of the consultation. This will give us a better understanding of how schools plan to respond to the resulting workforce requirements from 2017/18.
The Department does this, in part, by adding policy assumptions into the Teacher Supply Model (TSM), which informs the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) targets each year.
More details as to how the policy assumption process is managed within the TSM itself, along with some previous examples, can be found in both the 2016/17 TSM and the accompanying user guide.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-04-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in discussions with examination boards about retaining accreditation routes for lesser-taught languages at GCSE and A-level.
Lord Nash
Government action has resulted in GCSEs and A levels in a range of community languages being continued, to ensure young people can carry on studying a diverse range of foreign languages.
This follows a Government commitment in 2015 to protect a number of language GCSEs and A levels after the exam boards announced that from 2017 they would be withdrawing several courses.
Since then the Government has worked with Ofqual and the exam boards and we have been successful in securing most of the less-taught languages at GCSE and A level for future years. In addition to Chinese, Italian and Russian, the languages now secure are Arabic, Bengali, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Greek, Gujarati, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish and Urdu.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to reverse the shortfall of 21 per cent in the number of modern foreign language teachers, as calculated by the Department for Education’s initial teacher training census for 2014–15.
Lord Nash
To support recruitment to languages Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in 2016/17, we have increased the bursary rates for postgraduate languages trainees on fee-based courses. Trainees with 2:1 degree classification will now receive £25,000 (up from £20,000 in 2015/16 in 2015/16) and those with a 2:2 will receive £20,000 (up from £15,000 in 2015/16).
We offer potential languages trainees a range of support. The Premier Plus programme is available to candidates wanting to teach languages. This service includes support from a dedicated advisor; access to exclusive events; and regular communications with important news and application hints and tips. Languages candidates are also eligible for the funded School Experience Programme, helping them gain classroom experience to assist with their ITT application. Before they begin their training, languages applicants may benefit from funded Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses, through which they can improve either their first or their second additional language. Bursary support is also available for applicants undertaking an SKE course.
Furthermore, we want to attract qualified languages teachers who wish to return to the profession. We have recently launched a new pilot programme designed to help schools to attract and support returning teachers; this includes funding for returning language teachers. We will be undertaking a national marketing campaign to support this initiative.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2016-06-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to arrange for a meeting between the President of Colombia and representatives from non-governmental organisations in the UK concerned with human rights in Colombia, when the President makes his State Visit to the UK in November.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The upcoming State Visit is an excellent opportunity to continue our engagement with the Government of Colombia on a varity of issues. We are working closely with Buckingham Palace and the Colombian government on the details of the President’s programme, which will be developed over the next few months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will extend the current additional financial incentives for modern foreign language teachers in secondary schools to language specialists entering the teaching profession in primary schools.
Lord Nash
Financial incentives for initial teacher training (ITT) are designed to attract applicants to certain subjects. We have increased bursaries for secondary languages ITT trainees for 2016/17 in response to growing demand.
We have no current plans to extend these generous financial incentives for secondary language trainees to primary trainees. Primary ITT courses continue to be popular with applicants, and we are confident that we can recruit enough trainees nationally to meet need at the bursary rates announced for 2016/17.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-09-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Modern Languages teachers have been recruited in each of the last five years to work in (1) primary, and (2) secondary, schools.
Lord Nash
Recruitment to primary initial teacher training (ITT) is not subject specific. Therefore, the Department for Education does not hold data on those recruited in languages to primary schools.
The number of people recruited to secondary ITT in languages over the last five years is shown in the table below:
|
Recruitment year |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
Number recruited |
1,550 |
1,410 |
1,620 |
1,324 |
1,105 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-09-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Modern Languages teachers have left the teaching profession in each of the last five years (1) through retirement, and (2) for other reasons.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The information requested is not available.