Rob HorganSPANISH is set to replace French as the most popular foreign language to learn at school in Britain, according to the head of the country’s biggest exam board.
Andrew Hall, Chief Executive of the AQA exam board, made the bold claim after Spanish GCSE entrants rose for the sixth year in succession, to 93,028.
Entrants have doubled in the past eight years, while both French and German have seen dramatic decreases, falling by 9,246 and 3,041 respectively this year.
Spanish overtook German for the first time in 2008 and the Teutonic language is now lagging way behind, with just 59,891 entrants.
“I’ve always been talking about savvy students and that’s just what they are. They are thinking, ‘This language will really help me’,” said Hall.
“It is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world.”
