Education and Inspections Bill

I cannot resist speaking to this series of amendments because they hit on two areas about which I am very concerned. I want to say a few words about the scientific side. We have had a brilliant series of inspiring speeches, particularly from the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe. We do not need to go into the appalling situation of science again. As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, has said, many schools are already playing with—and more than playing with—the idea of going for the International Baccalaureate. I think that I have heard hints that the QCA is looking at something along those lines, so it may be that we are at the beginning of a process of change. It is absolutely essential that something happens quickly if we are falling so far behind. I would like to address the language side of things. I am particularly sorry that my noble friend Lady O’Neill is not here. I remember in the early months after I was lucky enough to become a Member of your Lordships’ House, the whole question of language learning was very much on the agenda. Suddenly, it was no longer part of the curriculum, and immediately we were seeing the result; some children and the less academic schools were already starting to give it up. Fewer people were taking the subject at university level, and there was a real spiralling downwards in that respect. That concern remains. Parallel to all of that, we had the Government’s commitment for the first time—and this hit me as something that I had not taken in at all—that by 2010 every primary school pupil would have the chance to learn a foreign language. That was a lovely thought, but the idea that they were then likely to go on and not continue it because it was not part of the curriculum was a pretty worrying progress report for the future. What we are now seeing, which I find quite extraordinary, is the extent to which out there the demand for languages seems to be growing. Every national paper you can think of is now giving us a disc from which you can learn French in a week, Italian in a week or Spanish in a week. It is clear that our great newspaper proprietors think that there is a need for it and that it will help sell their papers. More than that, there must be recognition that we do need languages. One language extra to your own prepares you almost instinctively to be able to take on other languages. Apart from anything else, there is a great need to understand and share the culture of other countries, and what better way can you do that than by learning a bit about one another’s languages? We know how many languages we have in this country. There is a parallel with the discussion that we had last time on religion and the way that an understanding of one another’s religions and beliefs can have the huge effect of making a more inclusive society. I very much hope that there will be some action here and that the Government will take a very positive line on the amendments, which clearly are crucial for our future. I commend the marvellous array of knowledge that we have heard from Members of this House. It just goes to show how important it is to keep the element of your Lordships’ House that allows this degree of diversity to come in and means that it is not all based on political parties, elections and so on. Finally, I so agree with the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, about the need to combine the academic and the vocational subjects. I support what everyone has said.