- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The MP has called for investment in specific languages such as Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil and Hindi.
By: Shubham Ghosh
HE has always been vocal about the slump in the number of British students in learning South Asian languages and sought more investment in them to bolster ties between the UK and India.
Gareth Thomas recently reiterated his viewpoint on the matter and called for government action on the level of support for the teaching of South Asian languages across the UK.
The Labour-Cooperative Party MP has called for investment in specific languages such as Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil and Hindi. According to him, as the UK seeks to develop closer trade and security ties in South Asia, the ability to speak the languages from that part of the world becomes even more important.
Source: UK parliament
India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and with a large Indian diaspora, the UK already has a solid foundation to building more cultural and business links with India, said a press release from the country’s parliament.
At the moment, the learning of South Asian languages sits largely on the shoulders of the diaspora community through temples, mosques and weekend schools. However, greater support from the government is something which is still needed. According to the release, while languages such as Mandarin and Latin that were in decline have received targeted backing from the UK government, languages from South Asia await a similar treatment.
Currently, there has been no funding provided directly for the teaching of Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sinhalese, Tamil, Pashto and Dari within the previous five years of the Conservative government.
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of students has drastically reduced. Gujarati GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) has faced a decline of 42 per cent, Bengali 58 per cent and Urdu a drop of 16 per cent.
“We are witnessing a decade of decline in the number of students taking up South Asian languages at a GCSE level because of the failure of this Conservative government to invest in these communities and their crucial languages. As we seek to negotiate trade deals with the world’s fastest growing economies like that of India it is of critical importance that the Government invests in these important South Asian languages,” Thomas said.
In February 2023, Thomas had said that the UK government needs to invest more in the South Asian languages since they are integral to maximise relationship between the two countries.
In November 2022, too, the MP had warned about a steep decline in the number of students in the UK studying the South Asian languages and sought more investment in them.
