I am a qualified teacher of Modern Foreign Languages with almost 15 years of experience. During my career I have witnessed the continual decline of German as a language being taught in British schools and I am very worried that without intervention there will no longer be the opportunity for young people to learn German in British schools. 

In December of 2021 the press in Germany reported that hardly any pupils in Great Britain want to learn German anymore.

In 2001, 571,000 students completed the GCSE qualification in German. In 2020 that figure was just 40,748. At A Level 2,666 were entered for the qualification in German in 2020, compared to 8,033 in Spanish and 7,557 in French.

Young people are being denied the opportunity to study German in many schools. German Language learning it is not being promoted, despite being the second biggest trading partner to the UK and a culturally rich and interesting country situated geographically close to the UK. 

Many German teachers fear that there soon will not be the opportunity to teach the subject that we enjoy and have trained to teach. Children and young adults are being offered a narrowed curriculum choice when it comes to language learning. Reverse the decline and make German a popular choice for GCSE and A Level once more.