Labour backs English baccalaureate to boost languages study
Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg praises government measure but says it comes with 'whole set of negatives'
The government's English baccalaureate, which recognises pupils who achieve good passes in a mix of academic subjects at GCSE, has won support from Labour's frontbench education spokesman.
Stephen Twigg, who was appointed shadow education secretary last month, gave qualified praise to the measure, which he said might reverse the decline in children studying languages.
His endorsement is the latest shift in position after Twigg expressed support for free schools, if they raise standards and help narrow the achievement gap between rich and poor.
In an interview with the Guardian, he said: "The Ebacc has one clear positive: more children carrying on to languages at 16. Let's be frank, the government has achieved something there and I welcome that."
However, Twigg said the ebacc had "a whole set of negatives" in terms of potentially crowding out other subjects.
In 2003 the Labour government decided to make languages optional after 14, a change that was introduced from September 2004. Language study has waned steadily since then. This year there were 154,000 entries for GCSE French, compared with more than 300,000 in 2004.
The English baccalaureate, introduced in school league tables this year, recognises pupils who have achieved a C or better in English, maths, history or geography, sciences and a language.
Twigg who said he regretted having given up Spanish when he was 14 said Labour should have put foreign languages on the primary school timetable before scrapping the requirement for older children.
"I think the mistake we made was to do it the wrong way around. I would defin! itely ma ke languages optional at 14, but what we should have done is had the primary languages approach first and then made the changes at 14. You can't go back to making it compulsory."
Twigg said it was imperative for private schools to "give something back" in exchange for charitable status.
"I don't think it is sufficient to say that because you're educating people that's fulfilling your charitable objectives. I think there is a broader social and community context and thankfully there are good examples of independent schools that have those relationships with the state sector or the wider community that very much justify their charitable status but I'm keen that that should be the norm.
"I think its a positive thing if private schools sponsor academies but I don't think that's the only way private schools can develop relationships with state schools."
Twigg underlined "fundamental differences" between the coalition and Labour, including the approach to creating academy schools. Under Labour, the academies programme was focused on transforming struggling schools in poor neighbourhoods. Michael Gove, the education secretary, has said he wants academies to be the norm.
"Gove makes a virtue of the large number of schools that have become academies in the past year, compared to slow growth under Labour," Twigg said. "I would turn that round and say of course it was a slow growth because these were carefully tailored programmes of school improvement. It was never ever just about academies, never putting all our eggs in one basket.
"The message is you can only be part of school improvement if you're a free school or you become an academy. I just passionately don't think that. I've been to enough schools that are doing a fantastic job, but don't want to become academies."
Twigg said he favoured a range of types of school, drawing attention to Cornwall where a majority ! of schoo ls are likely to become co-operatives.
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