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Nearly two-thirds of Scottish secondary schools now teach foreign languages in classes made up of students with differing levels of ability in order to make language learning “viable”, a report finds.

The shows that 64 per cent of secondary schools that participated in a recent survey reported “multi-level” classes being offered to students in S4 as a way of building up numbers. Many schools suggested that language classes would not run otherwise.

At S5, meanwhile, some 49 per cent of schools said that multi-level classes were taught.

The report - published today, at the start of - states that the teaching of students with different levels of ability is “a key challenge facing language teachers in Scotland”.

One teacher in the survey says that staff are prepared to teach multi-level classes to give students the chance to study languages, but that this can be “very challenging”.

Some 129 local authority primary schools and 113 secondaries from across Scotland took part in the survey, conducted by Queen’s University Belfast for the British Council in August and September 2024.

Over a third of schools (35 per cent) reported that fewer learners now take a language at S4 than did in the three years previously.

However, the report notes “it is pleasing to see that take-up is stable in nearly a third of schools and has increased in 16 per cent of schools”.

• Background: ‘Entitlement’ to languages met by falling number of Scottish schools
• Related: Data shows decades-long retreat of languages from Scottish schools
• Analysis: Why languages should still matter to schools

The report looks at how entries for national qualifications have changed since 2015. While Spanish has grown in popularity at Higher, uptake of French has fallen sharply, attracting around half the number of entries as in 2015 (4,572 for Higher French; in 2024 there were 2,300 entries). Scottish Qualifications Authority figures show that in 2023, Spanish overtook French as the most popular language at Higher.

Tes Scotland published its own analysis of Higher entries for languages in August last year and found that, overall, they had been on a downward trajectory since the 1980s (see graph below).

Dr Ian Collen, of Queen’s University Belfast, is one of the report’s authors. He said the data revealed “complex patterns in modern language provision”.

It was “hugely positive” to see “widespread implementation at primary level” but “the significant changes in qualification entries at senior level raise important questions about progression”.

Dr Collen concluded: “Everyone in Scotland needs to take these findings seriously and work collaboratively to assure the pipeline of future linguists.”

In just over 40 per cent of responding local authority secondary schools, the recruitment of qualified languages teachers was an issue (“major” in 15 per cent of schools, “minor” in 26 per cent).

The Scottish government’s means that Scottish pupils are meant to begin studying two languages in primary school, in addition to their language of instruction.

According to the policy, the first language should be taught “from P1 and continuously until the end of the at the end of S3”.

The British Council research finds that 98 per cent of primary schools surveyed taught modern languages in 2024-25.

Language-learning entitlement rarely met

However, the entitlement to language learning is not being met in many secondaries.

By S3, there is “a significant decrease in the number of schools reporting that all their learners are studying a language as part of the school day”.

Only 12 per cent of schools say all S3s are studying French, while the figure is 15 per cent for Spanish - the two most popular languages in Scottish schools. In S2 those figures are far higher, with 72 per cent of schools reporting that all students do French and 59 per cent saying all do Spanish. Just 3 per cent of secondary schools deliver two languages to all S3 students.

In the primary sector, language lessons are taught mainly by a classroom teacher (94 per cent of responding schools). Teachers from a local secondary (12 per cent) or a specialist language teacher (11 per cent) will occasionally deliver language lessons.

Just over 40 per cent of primaries report that the classroom teacher does not have a languages qualification of any kind. A lack of teacher confidence and time are the barriers to teaching languages most frequently given by primary schools.

Peter Brown, director of British Council Scotland, said that “learning a language builds connections, trust and understanding”.

He added: “While it’s encouraging to see a slight increase in some language exam entries over the last year, I’d like to see this continuing, and that international opportunities become more widely available, giving more young people the chance to transform their own lives through language learning.”

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