Britain is facing a crisis in foreign languages after the number of students taking A-levels in the subjects collapsed.
Today’s results highlight the sharp decline in teenagers choosing to study German, French and Spanish.
Experts warned that Britain needed people fluent in modern languages more than ever after a year of growing turmoil across the Continent.
However, the number of students taking German dropped by 7.6 per cent on last year, and by 24.3 per cent compared with 2007.
The number taking French fell by 5.2 per cent, and those studying Spanish dropped by 3.4 per cent.
Andrew Hall, the chief executive of the AQA exam board, said: “There is a crisis in modern foreign languages. We have the euro economy in a crisis and modern foreign languages is in the same place.
"Is this going to be like the euro, with the risk of going into freefall? There is a real terminal decline and it hasn’t happened in the last year or two. It is an extended period. There is a real worry.”
The number of students taking A-levels in Polish and Mandarin increased slightly, which experts said was due to native speakers taking the qualifications.
Mr Hall said: “As a nation, we need to look at this. We need to educate for the needs of the nation and not just for the individual.”
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We want to hear employers saying more about the importance of modern foreign languages. We are not seeing the sort of effort that has gone into increasing Stem (science, technology and maths) subjects.
“There are lots of initiatives to develop the uptake of these subjects and we have to have a similar initiative for languages if we are serious about it. There is no room for complacency.”
