Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on this year’s Sixth Form Colleges Association annual survey, said:

“This year’s Sixth Form Colleges Association annual survey shows the dangerous impact of this Tory Government’s failure to invest in the education of our young people.

"The fact that over a third of colleges have been forced to axe courses in modern foreign languages, and that over half have removed or reduced extra-curricular activities such as music, sport and drama shows the poverty of ambition of this Government.

"These courses and extra-curricular activities are essential in enabling young people to develop the range of skills and knowledge they will need when they finish their education and go on to look for jobs.

"Cuts to subjects such as modern foreign languages are a dangerous false economy. It is yet more evidence of how our country seems to be withdrawing further in on itself and putting up barriers to openness and co-operation with the rest of the world.  

"While the Government save money in the short term with these cuts, it is our young people who will lose out in the long run if they are not able to study a full and balanced curriculum. This is particularly true of modern foreign languages, which have become far more important in a whole range of professions in the globalised economy.”

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