Falling entries for language GCSEs in England have prompted a series of government programmes. In September 2025 the Department for Education (DfE) published an interim evaluation of several of them, prepared by the Institute for Employment Studies and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. This article summarises the report’s executive summary and findings. It concerns schools in England, and the findings are based on surveys and interviews with selected schools, so they describe what participants said and not the whole country. It is general information for learners and parents, not education advice.
What was evaluated
The report says the evaluation looked at the Language Hub programme, the British Council’s Language Assistants programme, UK German Connection and the German Promotion Project. It says the evaluation was set up in the context of a decrease in the uptake of languages at GCSE, especially among disadvantaged pupils. The findings draw on surveys carried out between April and November 2024 with staff and pupils from 9 Lead Hub schools, 16 partner schools, 9 Language Assistant host schools and 5 comparator schools, plus 465 British Council Language Assistants, along with interviews and case-study visits. The report states that in December 2024 a decision was made to discontinue the Language Hubs programme, that all data were collected before this decision, and that the DfE is continuing to fund the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE) to deliver a new support programme built around an online professional development platform.
What pupils said about taking a GCSE
Pupils who chose a language GCSE were motivated by enthusiasm for languages and a sense that the qualification would be beneficial. Those who decided against it were more interested in other subjects and thought languages did not fit their other choices. Some believed they were not good at languages, with Year 7 pupils showing the lowest confidence. Teachers said many pupils and families did not see languages as a core subject, and that pupils commonly regarded languages as a difficult subject, especially at GCSE, and were aware of perceived discrepancies in grading compared with other subjects. The site’s article on why GCSE French and German grading was adjusted looks at the grading history behind that perception.
These are perceptions reported by staff and pupils in the sample. The report does not measure grading or take-up in the way a national dataset would, and the interviews came from schools taking part in the programme, which the report itself notes may make participants more engaged than others.
How languages were organised
The report found marked variety across participating schools in languages offered, pupil choice, grouping, curriculum time (from one lesson a week to one a day) and teaching methods. The most common languages offered were French, Spanish and German, with occasional Mandarin or Italian. About three-fifths of pupils in Lead Hub schools said a language was mandatory at key stage 4, while most pupils in partner and comparator schools said it was optional. Nine out of ten pupils (89%) said they had learnt languages at primary school before Year 7, mostly French (81% of those who had). Most teachers interviewed followed the recommendations of the 2016 Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review, which emphasise grammar, phonics and vocabulary, and the report noted an increased focus on phonics. The site’s article on why England’s national curriculum requirement stops at 14 explains the policy backdrop.
Home and heritage languages
The report found that staff in most Lead Hub schools saw improving support for home heritage and community languages as a priority. Some could offer lessons for native speakers outside curriculum time and help with exam preparation, while others could offer little. The challenges listed were finding teachers to support exam preparation, finding a space and an examiner, and avoiding clashes with other GCSEs. Pupils who spoke these languages were not, according to pupil reports, more or less interested in taking a language GCSE than pupils overall, although staff had expected them to be more interested.
Recruitment and Language Assistants
The report describes recruitment and retention as a huge challenge for language teaching, noting that many participants gave instances of their own or a nearby school struggling to recruit despite incentives. On Language Assistants, it says 92% of the 465 assistants surveyed rated their experience as positive, and 97% of staff in schools employing modern language assistants agreed they were beneficial to pupils. The main challenge for people becoming assistants was post-Brexit changes in the right to work in the UK and EU. The report notes that 70% of assistants reported spending between £3,000 and £7,499 while on placement, and 51% said they had spent more than expected. These are survey results from one cohort in 2023 to 2024.
What it could not show
The evaluation is interim and reports on the first year. It does not measure whether the programmes raised GCSE entries or attainment; the report says early evidence suggested the Language Hub programme was beginning to affect practice. The DfE’s programme for Latin was reviewed elsewhere on this site in the article on the Latin Excellence Programme.
Common questions
Does the report say languages are declining?
It says the evaluation was set in the context of a decrease in the uptake of languages at GCSE, especially among disadvantaged pupils, but its own findings are survey-based. A DfE press release of 14 September 2023, announcing the hubs, said modern foreign languages GCSE entries had risen 5.1% in 2023 compared with 2022 and 9.2% compared with 2019, so the entry picture depends on the years compared.
Are Language Hubs still running?
The report says the programme was discontinued and replaced by a new programme run by NCLE with a core online platform.
The bottom line
The DfE’s interim evaluation suggests that in the schools studied, pupils opting out of language GCSEs did so mainly because they preferred other subjects, doubted their ability or saw languages as difficult and non-essential, while teachers highlighted recruitment and heritage-language support as pressures. The findings come from selected schools and cannot show what causes national trends.
Sources
- Institute for Employment Studies and NIESR for the Department for Education, “Language programmes evaluation: Interim report” (September 2025), GOV.UK (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
- GOV.UK, “More pupils of all ages to study languages”