GCSE RESULTS
About 690,000 pupils from England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their GCSE results today and the pass rate rose for the 23rd year in a row.
The number of students taking foreign languages has dropped by a third since the government made them optional at GCSE six years ago. The decline of French has been striking; it has nearly halved to just over 170,000 entries compared with more than 300,000 in 2004, and fell out of the top 10 most popular subjects this year.
Spanish appears poised to overtake German at GCSE; with the numbers taking it rising to over 67,000 while German entries have fallen to around 70,000 this year. The numbers taking Mandarin, Portuguese and Polish have also risen, with the last thought to be fuelled by the increase in the number pupils who are children of recent Polish migrants.
Spanish made simple
Spanish made simple