Mandarin and Arabic to be taught in schools

Ed Balls, the Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, has announced that all secondary school pupils should have the opportunity to study Mandarin and Arabic to meet the future demands of UK business.

Primary schools should also be able to study these languages, amongst others including Japanese and Russian, when learning a foreign language is made compulsory in 2011.

The principle of the suggestion for secondary schools has been greeted by Murdo Fraser, Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives and Shadow Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.

Speaking to The Journal, Mr Fraser said: “I think it’s a perfectly legitimate aspiration to introduce this into the school curriculum, as it meets the increasing demands of UK trade”

“We have always concentrated on European languages but Mandarin and Arabic will become more relevant in future years... it is a sensible suggestion, providing that it’s a matter for flexible decision making at a school level rather than a dictat from the centre.”

Mr Fraser is more reserved about the feasibility of implementing the changes due to a possible shortage of teachers.

“The UK has no history of teachers in these languages, it’s going to be very difficult to find sufficient numbers to accommodate for the demand there will be for them.

"In the run up to the general election there is temptation on the part of government ministers to throw around headline catching ideas without knowing how to put them into practice.”

However, accordin tog Prof. Natascha Gentz, Chair of Chinese at Edinburgh University and Director of the Confucius institute in Scotland, whilst constituting a major change for English schools, the introduction of Mandarin into the Scottish system has already begun.

“Through the Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh, and in collaboration with the Scottish government and bodies across the community, we are heavily engaged in promoting the learning of Chinese in schools and across the general public.

“Also, the Scottish government, through its establishment of Confucius Classroom hubs in Scotland, very actively pushes Chinese in schools forward, probably more actively than in any other part of Britain.”

Ed Balls has announced that a possible shortage in teachers has already been addressed.

The schools secretary said the government has, “invested £7 million in training 5,000 language specialist teachers with more to start training later this year”

The suggestion has also been met with criticism regarding the difficulty of teaching languages such as Mandarin to younger children.

However, Prof Gentz suggested that Mandarin was not overly complex, even for primary school pupils.

“It’s quite fun to learn, especially for young kids who enjoy 'drawing' the characters. I would think the language itself is much easier to learn than a European language as the grammar is much simpler.”