Language students to get classroom role

Students on language degree courses are to be invited into the classroom to bolster a government drive to persuade thousands of primary schoolchildren to start studying languages from the age of seven.

The plan will be unveiled tomorrow when Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, launches a blueprint for promoting language teaching in schools.

The student scheme is being piloted and undergraduates will be able to undertake part-time teaching regardless of whether they want to enter the profession or not.

Ministers are offering the carrot of allowing the classroom experience to count towards their teaching certificates in a bid to persuade them to become teachers.

The Government is also calling for a substantial increase in the number of specialist language colleges in the secondary sector. At present, there are 157. Their numbers would be increased to around 300 if executives of the Technology Colleges Trust, which represents specialist schools, achieve their aspiration to have two in each local education authority.