Education Secretary Michael Gove has finally introduced plans to teach foreign languages in schools from the age of seven.

A new government blueprint for the national curriculum overseen by Gove includes compulsory teaching of foreign languages in primary schools. Ministers have suggested that Mandarin, Latin and Greek should be taught alongside traditionally taught languages such as French, German and Spanish.

The planned changes have been revealed on the back of a report by Britain’s bosses which suggests that the UK  has “the worst language proficiency in Europe”. The report by CBI and Pearson, which surveyed 500 companies, also revealed that business owners consider Mandarin a key skill for youngsters today, rating it fourth behind German, French and Spanish.

The initiative will be introduced in September 2014, and they will see the biggest changes to the national curriculum since its birth 25 years ago. Some of the other changes will include dictating to teachers which words kids should be able to spell at certain ages and teaching them to recite poetry from memory, and it reflects a move to traditional teaching from the coalition government.

What do you think of the plans to introduce compulsory teaching of languages to primary school children in the UK? Let us know in the comments below.

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