«The English Baccalaureate does not force anyone to do anything but it does reveal the extent to which in the last 13 years we have
seen a huge drop in the numbers of students doing
modern languages, and overall that the number of students who have got GCSEs in English, maths, a
foreign language, science and a humanity is not what it should be.»
Results day also reveals the popularity of different GCSE subjects, and this year
saw an increase in the numbers taking individual sciences but a continued fall in numbers taking history, geography and
modern foreign languages.