Press Release

Survey of Mandarin teaching sets monitoring baseline

Between ten and thirteen per cent of English secondary schools provide some Mandarin teaching; however, so far this is only available for small numbers of students within the school and may take place outside normal curriculum time.

From September 2008 schools will be free to offer any major European or world language as their statutory modern foreign language in Key Stage 3. These key findings from a new survey provide a baseline for monitoring progress.

Mandarin can also be offered in primary schools within the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages and results from the survey show that so far there are 26 schools in 13 local authorities doing so.

There is enthusiasm to develop Mandarin teaching further in both primary and secondary schools; however, there are a number of constraints on moving from enrichment or taster courses to a full curriculum offer. These include the availability of trained teachers and lack of time in the curriculum.

The survey shows that the majority of schools which offer Mandarin are those with high educational attainment generally, and they include a greater proportion of independent schools than maintained schools. Of the maintained schools, a relatively large proportion are Specialist Language Colleges. School links with China play an important role in the development of Mandarin teaching and in the embedding of Chinese studies in other areas of the curriculum such as History, Geography or Art.

Isabella Moore, Chief Executive of CILT, said:

"With the growth of the Chinese economy, there is currently a huge expectation that the education system will be able to deliver greater numbers of Mandarin speakers in the future, and it is important that we take this challenge seriously.

"Our survey provides an important information base for this work, and highlights key issues to be addressed if these expectations are to be met."

The findings, which have been published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and are also available on the CILT website, include survey and exam data, case studies and a review of key issues such as staffing and accreditation.