Teachers required for new Chinese GCSE

A new crop of teachers will be required to teach the new Chinese GCSE that the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) is launching.

Students will study the new qualification as of September this year in a bid to equip today's young people with the skills that businesses will want in the future.

"Interest in China and Chinese has grown quickly over the past few years, reflecting its increasing importance politically and economically," a spokeswoman for AQA said.

"Organisations including teachers associations, the British Council and the CBI have called for more teaching of Mandarin Chinese in schools."

The board added that a range of Chinese courses will also be offered at lower levels.

A government report published last year revealed that seven per cent of all schools offer Mandarin, although GCSE entries for the qualification have declined by 14 per cent since 2001.

Furthermore, the Department for Children, Schools and Families claims that there will be 85 Chinese language teaching assistants in English schools starting this September, funded by the British Council and the HSBC language assistants programme.