There has been a steady decline in
the numbers taking AL Modern Languages over the last 20 years, with
sharp declines for the exams taken in Jun’02 onwards (- new Curriculum
2000 with AS etc), so that now the numbers have fallen by around half.
·
Both
AL
and AS were steady from around 2004-2007, but there has been a further
decline in the last two years; it is a concern that there was a drop for
AL
in 2010 even though the numbers for AS had remained constant from 2008 to
2009. We can expect a further drop in
AL
numbers in 2011 on the basis of the 2010 AS numbers.
·
The pattern is very similar for French and German, just different starting points (e.g
French: 1993 = 29,886, 2010 = 13,850 (i.e. 46%); German: 1993 = 10,857,
2010 = 5,548 (i.e. = 51%)
·
Whereas the number of A grade students at both AL and AS has remained
reasonably constant, there has been a particularly
marked decline in
lower-attaining pupils especially at AL
(e.g. AL French grade A: 1993 = 5,559,
2002 = 4,575, 2010 =
5,415; 512 ; French grade E:
1993 = 4,064, 2002 = 1,202, 2010 = 512
AS French grade A: 2002 = 5,796, 2010 = 5,356; French grade E: 2002 =
2417, 2010 = 1773)
·
The change in the
intake profile has led to an increased percentage of entries getting higher grades, but there is
an unresolved question as to whether the increase has been great enough to
match the attainment of the students. The small number
of E grade students leads to a particular issue at A and AS level where
the grade boundaries are determined by a linear interpolation between the
A/B boundary and the E/U boundary.
·
The numbers taking Spanish have increased in the same period
and now exceed the number taking German (e.g. Spanish: 1993 = 4,850, 2002
= 5,572, 2010 = 7,629)
·
There is a contrast with other subjects such as History,
English, Maths, Further Maths (which now exceeds German) and Science
subjects such as Physics.
