FEARS have been raised over the future of Latin at schools after academics revealed that it was a grade harder than any other subject at GCSE level.

Teachers were accused by classicists yesterday of intensifying the threat to the language by turning pupils away from the subject, in the hope of them getting higher grades elsewhere. Last year head teachers’ leaders admitted that schools were increasingly “playing the system” to increase GCSE grades.

In a study of GCSE and A levels, Robert Coe, from the University of Durham, analysed results of 200,000 students. He found that at grade C, Latin was a grade harder than the next hardest subjects which tend to be sciences and modern languages. Will Griffiths, director of the University of Cambridge’s school classics project, said the fact that Latin was seen as difficult represented one of the biggest threats to its survival. “It comes down particularly to league tables,” he said.

In 1988, the first full year of GCSE examinations and the start of the national curriculum, more than 16,000 pupils took Latin, of whom about half were state-educated. Since then the number has fallen, until just 9,886 pupils took Latin in 2004.

Boris Johnson, the Shadow Higher Education Minister and an author on Roman history, condemned the trend. “Latin is a wonderful subject that introduces you to the roots of European civilisation,” he said.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating