{"value":{"id":971909,"askingMemberId":457,"askingMember":null,"house":"Lords","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2018-09-11T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2018-09-25T00:00:00","uin":"HL10270","questionText":"To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative levels of study of Chinese in private and state schools; what steps they are taking to increase the teaching of Chinese in state schools; and what assessment they have made of the importance of developing Chinese language skills to the UK’s trade relationship with China post-Brexit.","answeringBodyId":60,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Education","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4689,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2018-09-24T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>The government is encouraging pupils to take a language at GCSE as one of the academic subjects making up the English Baccalaureate school performance measure. To target Mandarin uptake in particular, the government’s £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) aims to have at least 5,000 young people on track towards fluency in Mandarin by 2020. As of September 2018, there are over 60 state-funded schools on the programme, meaning we are on track to delivering the MEP’s target.</p><p> </p><p>The proportion of pupils taking Mandarin at GCSE has increased over time, with the number of entries at GCSE and A level both increasing this year. Pupil matched data for 2018 will be available in the autumn.[1]</p><p> </p><p>The time series for the number of GCSE entries in Chinese for the most recent five years of published data in England is given in the attached table (a).</p><p> </p><p>The time series for the number of A level entries in Chinese for the most recent five years of published data in England is given in the attached table (b).[2]</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[1] Joint Council of Qualifications data 2018, <a href=\"https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results</a>. This data is not discounted and is not comparable to the data in the tables below. We will have comparable data in autumn 2018.</p><p> </p><p>[2] These figures are all published as part of the 16-18 performance tables publications: <a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-attainment-at-19-years\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-attainment-at-19-years</a>.</p><p> </p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":2,"heading":"Mandarin Language: Education","attachments":[{"url":"https://qna.files.parliament.uk/qna-attachments/971909/original/HL10270_Table_(a)_GCSE_entries_Chinese_five_years (1).pdf","title":"HL10270_Table_(a)_GCSE_entries_Chinese_five_years","fileType":"pdf","fileSizeBytes":68216},{"url":"https://qna.files.parliament.uk/qna-attachments/971909/original/HL10270_Table_(b)_A_Level_entries_Chinese_five_years (1).pdf","title":"HL10270_Table_(b)_A_Level_entries_Chinese_five_yea","fileType":"pdf","fileSizeBytes":62106}],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/971909","method":"GET"}]}