8. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the teaching of modern foreign languages in Wales? OAQ52956

The performance of young people who study modern foreign languages at AS, A-level and GCSE remains strong. We have invested £2.5 million in our 'Global futures' plan to enable young people to understand the importance and the opportunities of studying modern foreign languages.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response, but it doesn't actually reflect the reality of modern foreign language teaching in Welsh schools today. The latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service figures indicate that there are 80 students from Wales who secured places on European language and literature courses last year—down from 120 at this time last year. And, over the decade from 2009, A-level entries in French and German have fallen by two thirds—and they fell again last year—and Spanish by a half. The Government's 'Global futures' document was published in October 2015, and it was a plan to promote and improve modern foreign languages in Wales during the five-year period up to 2020. This programme seems to have utterly failed, so what is the Cabinet Secretary going to do to try to repair the damage that has been done?

Let us be absolutely clear: just a few moments ago, UKIP was telling us that we had far too many people going on to university to study academic subjects, and actually our focus as a Government should be on encouraging—[Interruption.]—be on people, encouraging them to do other routes. Let's be absolutely clear: where pupils are choosing to study modern foreign languages, they are doing extremely well—2018 results showed an increase at A-level grades A* to C in French, German and Spanish, and, at GCSE, A* to C grades increased in French—[Interruption.] In French also. Now, undoubtedly, there are challenges in relation to the take-up of modern foreign languages, but the figures from 2018 show that the decline in the take-up of German has halted, and the decline in French is less steep. We have put additional resources in via the 'Global futures' programme, and, to support this further, I have agreed additional funding for the regions for 2018-19 to enhance their support offer for MFL, with specific focus on the primary sector, so that children discover a love of learning modern foreign languages earlier in their academic career rather than having to wait until secondary school to have these opportunities.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.