Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the subjects most likely to be affected by a reduction in the number of people taking them in the event of a significant proportion of young people required to take a foreign language GCSE.
Nick Gibb
In implementing the EBacc, the Government remains fully committed to ensuring all pupils receive a well-rounded education. All state-funded schools are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. We expect all schools to continue to offer a wide range of options beyond the EBacc, so that pupils have opportunities to study subjects that reflect their individual interests and strengths.
The EBacc has been designed to be limited in size to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for other subjects. On average, pupils in state-funded schools enter nine GCSEs and equivalent qualifications, rising to more than ten for more able pupils.[1] For many pupils, taking the EBacc will mean taking seven GCSEs; and for those taking triple science, it will mean taking eight. This means that there will continue to be room for pupils to study other subjects.
We set out our EBacc proposals in our consultation on implementing the English Baccalaureate. We will respond to the consultation in due course.
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