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<p>The government understands the importance of all languages for the UK’s economic
and diplomatic interests, as well as the many personal and social benefits learning
another language can bring. This is why the study of languages is a statutory part
of the national curriculum for pupils in key stages 2 and 3.</p><p>French, Spanish
and German remain the most popular languages for pupils to study at school. The government
provides resources and professional development for teachers in these languages through
the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Hub programme, run by the National Centre for Excellence
in Language Pedagogy.</p><p>An increasing number of pupils now choose to study Mandarin,
and the government supports many of these pupils through the £12 million Mandarin
Excellence Programme (MEP). The MEP is the department’s flagship programme for the
study of Mandarin, with the aim of providing a pipeline of fluent Mandarin speakers
to meet the UK’s future economic and diplomatic needs. We are currently considering
what steps might be taken to provide greater support for the study of other languages,
including Arabic and Urdu.</p><p>Schools are free to offer any language which they
feel best meets the needs of their pupils and the wider community. GCSEs and A levels
are available in Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Turkish and Urdu. All these languages
count towards the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) school performance measure, ensuring
that most young people study a core of academic subjects at GCSE. The provision of
these qualifications is ultimately a decision for awarding organisations. However,
the department is supportive of ongoing opportunities to study these languages, signifying
Britain's role as an outward-facing, vibrant country, enriched by the diversity of
its people.</p><p>Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and unique circumstances in 2021, the
government made a grant available to support exam centres to meet costs associated
with the additional demands of assessment for private candidates, including those
taking community and heritage languages. The claims window opened on 29 November 2021
and closed on 10 January 2022. The department subsequently carried out quality assurance
checks on the evidence provided by centres to ensure the accuracy of claims and payment
allocations. The assurance checks that needed to be carried out always meant that
payments would be made to centres at the end of the 2021/22 financial year. Centres
that supplied the evidence required in the claims were due to be paid on 31 March
2022. This included a payment to the Community Language Examination Centre.</p><p>The
grant was only available for teacher assessed grades produced in summer 2021, not
to any other assessment period, due to the unique circumstances in 2021. It has helped
centres to meet costs and will not have led to any exam entry reductions.</p>
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