Gareth Thomas MP has called on the government to allocate resources for the development and teaching of South Asian languages, including Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, and Hindi.
Thomas highlighted that the limited understanding of South Asian languages in the UK hinders the full potential of cultural and business ties between the UK and South Asia. Currently, the responsibility of preserving and teaching South Asian languages falls largely on the diaspora community, primarily through places of worship and weekend schools. While acknowledging these community efforts, the MP emphasised the need for substantial government support to strengthen language education initiatives.
Thomas compared the allocation of resources to other languages like Mandarin and Latin, which have received targeted government support. He stressed the urgency for similar assistance towards South Asian languages, noting that no direct funding has been allocated for the teaching of Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sinhalese, Tamil, Pashto, and Dari in the past five years under the Conservative government.
The neglect is reflected in the significant reduction of students opting for South Asian languages at the GCSE level between 2013 and 2023, with a decline of 42% in Gujarati, 58% in Bengali, and 16% in Urdu enrollments during this period.