By Noël Wolf

Today is back to school day for many children across the UK. But as the long weeks of relaxing, staying up, spending time with friends and going on holiday come to an end for another year, teachers and education experts are fretting over a deepening crisis:

The death of language learning.

A death that harms students’ career prospects and the UK’s international standing - and one that can only be fixed by reframing language subjects not just as an interesting frivolity, but as a crucial tool for finding success in today’s increasingly connected and competitive world.

Although this decline has been a concern for some time, the scale of this crisis was laid bare following A-levels results day when research found that more A-level students are now taking physical education than French, German and classical languages.

The study by the Higher Education Policy Institute found that under 3% of A-levels taken this year were in modern or classical languages. To put this in stark terms: we’re producing fewer multilingual graduates than at any point in modern history, just as the world becomes more interconnected.

The knock-on effect of this trend is deeply concerning. Lower uptake at GCSE and A-level obviously translates to fewer students choosing to study modern languages at university. According to the HEPI study: ‘Since 2014, 17 post-1992 universities have lost their modern languages degrees, bringing the total closures to 28 and leaving modern languages in just 10.’

To see what needs to be done, two questions first must be answered: What is driving this decline? Why is it important that the trend is reversed?

The driving factors of the........

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