CCEA have just announced that they will be scrapping A level and GCSE German by the end of the decade with concern for numbers of people taking the subject.

As a current Upper Sixth A level German student and passionate advocate for language learning at Methodist College Belfast, I have studied German in school since year 9 and it quickly became my favourite subject.

The removal of this logical and interesting language as a subject option not only creates job losses for the dedicated teachers in this subject but also diminishes the opportunities for young people.

Language learning is a skill that is often deemed unimportant in today’s digital age and with STEM subject being seen as more important, language learning is always brushed to the side. In reality, now more than ever we need linguists in our society to have effective communicators and allow communication across languages.

German is a very important language to learn as it has around 100 million native speakers and is used very often in the business world. Not only this but it is so logical and coherent in its grammatical structures that it teaches problem solving and perseverance through its complexities, which I believe is what makes it so great.

I firmly hold the belief that CCEA should reconsider this decision and instead of scrapping the subject because of low numbers, take a step back and have a look at it from another angle and perhaps consider creating incentives for young people to learn this vital language instead of ensuring that less and less young people have the opportunity to learn languages by diminishing their choices.

So please join me in petitioning against this change and keep the German language alive in Northern Ireland!

Danke schön für ihre Zeit!