THE Government will offer cash bonuses to secondary schools today in an attempt to arrest a sharp decline in the study of foreign languages.

Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, will promise annual grants of £30,000 for specialist language schools to improve the teaching of languages. The money will also be offered to other specialist schools if they opt to add languages as a second specialist subject.

The £30 million initiative will start in September as part of efforts to meet the Government’s target of having 400 specialist language schools by 2010. There are 212 now. Ms Kelly will also promise £60 million to train 24,000 primary school teachers to provide language lessons. About 9,000 classroom assistants will also be trained to teach languages.

The Government has pledged that all pupils in England aged 7 to 11 will have the chance to learn at least one European language by 2010 as part of a national strategy set out by Ms Kelly’s predecessor, Charles Clarke. However, it has come under intense criticism for simultaneously making languages optional for secondary school children at the age of 14 since last September.

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