Shadow education secretary promises to reverse decision to abolish Turkish and other languages as a GCSE and A level subject
Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary
Labour has promised to save Turkish as a GCSE and A level subject if it wins the next general election.
The commitment from the party’s shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, comes after the OCR examination board decided to abolish the subject entirely from 2017.
The board said low student demand and difficulties in recruiting staff to mark the exam were key reasons behind its decision, but Turkish teachers have raised doubts over that explanation.
Other minority languages like Bengali, Guajarati and Polish have been scrapped by examination boards, causing an outcry among minority communities.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Hunt told Londra Gazete that it was “short-sighted” to scrap important language qualifications.
“The Tories won’t take action. We will. Labour will save these important A level languages.”
Observers have said the Government’s recent education reforms, which require that every GCSE and A level subject is renovated, had led the examination boards to drop certain subjects rather than go through the expense and trouble of reforming them.
“Make no mistake, it is the Government that has caused this mess, which risks important languages like Turkish, Polish, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Modern Hebrew, and Portuguese, being lost from the school curriculum,” Mr Hunt said in earlier comments last week.
He said fewer young people would be able to take a Turkish A level “precisely at the time we need to be harnessing our entrepreneurial capital and soft power in the new emerging economies.”
Ali Uysal, a teacher who represents the Turkish Language, Culture and Education Consortium, said there was “a large pool of experienced Turkish examiners [available] and as a key member of that team, I know that OCR’s call for support at very notice is always satisfied.”
Labour’s declaration comes as Turkish teachers prepare to meet executives from the OCR examination board later this month, accompanied by the Conservative parliamentary candidate Nick de Bois.
Mr de Bois, who was the MP for the constituency until parliament was dissolved this week, secured a House of Commons debate on the subject last Tuesday.
He said: “I welcome the growing cross-party support for this campaign but we should never forget that under Labour, language teaching schools declined, which is why we are facing this problem now.
“I am looking forward to meeting the exam bodies to get action to reverse this decision now.”
