To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of (a) primary and (b) secondary school children are taught at least one foreign language. (87493)

The Department does not collect data on the number of primary school children learning languages. However, in January 2005 the findings of Headspace, a survey of head teachers by Education Guardian and Edcoms, indicated that 56 per cent. of all primary schools in England were planning for or implementing language learning programmes to their pupils, (b) In 2005, the percentage of pupils at the end of key stage 4 attempting any modern foreign language examination was 59 per cent. (375,300 pupils out the cohort of 633,400).