THOUSANDS of pupils are at risk of missing out on GCSEs and A-levels grades for languages this summer, according to a new report.
Pupils who planned to take exams for “community” languages – often not taught at school – could struggle to get marks through teacher assessment, a think-tank has said.
Global Future warned of the potential for a repeat of last year when they said many pupils studying subjects such as Turkish, Gujarati and Polish were unable to get grades after exams were cancelled.
Some 30,000 students enter for qualifications in community languages which are manly minority languages within a society, according to the think-tank.
The Global Future report said: “Most mainstream teachers understandably did not feel close enough to assess their students’ understanding of a subject they had never taught.
Nuriye Mertcan
“However, rather than reaching out to these students or their supplementary schools, the many mainstream schools simply withdrew ‘community’ language students from their examinations.”
The think-tank called on ministers to put aside £3m in grants to help students pay to take exams at private exam centres this year, which have an approximate cost of £200 per entry.
“Because ‘community’ language students take their exams in smaller numbers than mainstream exams, it should be possible to assess them safely in this way,” the report said.
Speaking to Londra Gazete about the possibility of students missing out on Turkish language GCSE and A levels exams, Nuriye Mertcan, Chair of the UK Turkish Language Culture and Education Consortium and deputy principal at Duke’s Aldridge Academy said: ‘‘ This situation is very sad. We work hard. Even if you come from a German or French-speaking family, you will get your grade in most cases, but our children did not. It was not spoken to us by the government. No effort was made to reach out. I think we are viewed with distrust. Other languages seem to be valued more, and this is a kind of institutionalized bias.”
Adding that the Consortium has been approved as an examination centre for Turkish GSCE and A-Level and will continue it offer their serves and help support for exam applications.