Last year it was announced that certain languages were going to be scrapped by UK exam boards and included Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali. At the time shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt called on the government to 'rescue' these subjects saying “Precisely at the time we need to be harnessing our entrepreneurial capital and soft power in the new emerging economies, the Government’s actions will lead to fewer young people being able to take A levels in Portuguese, Turkish, Gujarati and Punjabi."
At the time a spokesperson for AQA said: “We completely understand and respect the importance of these languages, and we still intend to offer all of them at GCSE. With language A-levels changing to include speaking and listening as well as reading and writing, it’ll be extremely difficult to recruit enough examiners in these subjects to cope with double the amount of assessment. In addition, the small number of students choosing to study these subjects at A-level makes it very hard to set appropriate grade boundaries.”
Following much debate both within the media and within the education system a campaign led by Jayant Tanna, Chairman of the Consortium of Gujarati Schools kept the flame burning for these languages to remain.
Mr Tanna recently received a letter by Paul Steer, Head of Policy at OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) which stated: "OCR has been in lengthy dialogue with the DfE, Ofqual and the other exam boards for some time in an attempt to find a satisfactory way forward.
"Although OCR will not be offering GCSE and A Level Gujurati beyond our current commitments, we are grateful that the exam board Pearson has agreed in principle to offer these qualifications in the future. This will secure the continued availability of both GCSEs and GCEs in Gujarati."
He continued: "We will, of course, be working closely with Pearson to secure a smooth handover and we will be waiving all relevant intellectual property rights, and communicating with assessors and centres etc, in order to allow this to happen. Obviously, it will take some time to finalise the arrangements and there is much detail yet to be worked through.
"The practical consequences of our decision are that, for Gujarati, the final OCR courses will start in September 2017 with final examinations taking place in the summer of 2019 with a re-sit opportunity for A Levels/AS Levels in 2020."
Jayant Tanna responded by saying: "This is excellent news!! I would like to thank each and every one of you for your wonderful co-operation, support, advice and commitment to Gujarati language for our future and that of our children.
"I must mention my particular thanks to Gareth Thomas and Bob Blackman for their unstinting support and wonderful advocacy role in Parliament and with DfE colleagues. But this is also a time when we have got to continue with our efforts to work hard with our parents, children, community groups and of course teachers and examination boards. Yes we can take a great deal of pride in our success but we must not forget that the challenge before us remains."
