The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 9th May 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether they have made an assessment of the impact of emerging artificial intelligence capacities on the necessity for foreign language learning.
Baroness Barran (Con, DfE): Studying a language can be extremely rewarding and exciting for children and young people. It can provide insight into other cultures and open the door to travel and employment opportunities. Whilst Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be useful in enhancing the experience of learning a language, and this should be explored further, it should not be seen as a replacement.
The department wants to capitalise on the opportunities technology like AI presents for education, as well as addressing its risks and challenges. Responses to the call for evidence on generative AI in education highlighted the potential for this technology in generating language exercises and conversational prompts, for example. Language learning was one of the use cases tested as part of the department’s Generative AI Hackathon project. The report of this project is due to be published shortly. The most important thing for a high-quality education is having a human expert teacher in the classroom. The emergence of this technology does not change that.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government:
- how many pupils took German as a GCSE in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
- how many pupils took French as a GCSE in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022 and (5) 2023.
- how many pupils took Russian as a (1) GCSE, or (2) A-level, in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023.
Baroness Barran: The requested data can be found in the tables below
Total number of pupils entering GCSE French, German, and Russian
Coverage: England (all schools)
Academic years: 2018/19 to 2022/23
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | ||
| French | 123,497 | 124,942 | 125,069 | 124,707 | 125,447 | |
| German | 41,544 | 40,859 | 37,114 | 35,552 | 33,570 | |
| Russian | 1,353 | 1,621 | 1,448 | 1,944 | 2,590 |
(1) All schools include state-funded schools, independent schools, independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, hospital schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision. Alternative provision includes academy and free school alternative provision
(2) Discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once. In 2021/22, with the return of the exam series, first entry rules were reintroduced for discounting. Further information can be found in the secondary accountability guidance. For more on the discounting methodology read the Discounting and Early Entry Guidance
(3) Total number of entries include pupils who were absent, whose results are pending and results which are ungraded or unclassified
(4) Figures include attempts and achievements by these pupils in previous academic years where discounting has been applied
(5) In 2017, new reformed GCSEs (which use the 9-1 grade scale) were introduced into secondary school performance tables in a phased approach. Unreformed subjects continued to be graded using the A* to G system. From 2020 onwards all GCSEs are now reformed and use the 9-1 grading scale.
(6) For pupils at the end of KS4 in 2022/23, where pupils achieved qualifications in subjects between January 2020 and August 2021, we will not use results from these qualifications and these results are shown as covid impacted. The entries into the qualifications are still counted.
Total number of pupils entering A level French, German, and Russian
Coverage: England
Academic years: 2018/19 to 2022/23
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
| French | 7,386 | 7,408 | 7,393 | 7,151 | 6,308 |
| German | 2,707 | 2,651 | 2,446 | 2,521 | 2,119 |
| Russian | 693 | 652 | 596 | 405 | 621 |
(1) Includes students triggered for inclusion in performance tables who completed A levels during 16-18 study, after discounting of exams. Includes pending awards
(2) A change to the trigger rules was introduced in 2020/21 such that students were no longer automatically reported after two years in 16-18 study. The introduction caused a fall in cohort size, particular within the vocational and technical cohorts. A full impact analysis can be found in the methodology document (https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results).
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how many students applied to take part in the Turing Scheme in (1) 2021–22, (2) 2022–23, (3) 2023–24 and (4) 2024–25.
Baroness Barran: Students cannot apply directly to the Turing Scheme. Education providers and other eligible organisations can apply to the scheme for funding towards the costs of their students’ international study and work placements. These organisations are responsible for planning placements on behalf of their students. This includes recruiting students and disbursing Turing Scheme funding to them.
However, 21,353 pupils, learners, and students participated in international work and education placements in the 2021/22 academic year through the Turing Scheme. The scheme provided funding for 38,374 placements during the 2022/23 academic year, but the actual number of participants is not yet known. The department expects to publish data for the 2022/23 academic year this autumn.
For the current academic year (2023/24) the Turing Scheme is providing funding for 41,175 pupils, learners and students across the UK. Final data will not be available until after the academic year ends on 31 August 2024 following the submission of providers’ final reports.
No data is available for the 2024/25 academic year as applications from providers are currently being assessed. The department will inform providers about the outcome of their applications in June 2024 and will announce results publicly shortly thereafter.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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