Responding to new research from the British Council which found that six in 10 schools have struggled to recruit language teachers, James Bowen, assistant general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“There are real benefits to learning a foreign language and there is some superb language teaching in both primary and secondary schools.

“However, the shortage of foreign language teachers is a significant issue which will need to be addressed if more pupils are to learn a language.

“The teacher recruitment and retention crisis in schools is not limited to languages, however. We welcome Labour’s pledge to address this and are ready to offer our expertise to support these efforts.”