Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton North East and Shadow Housing Minister, Emma Reynolds, has welcomed the commitment by Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt, to protect the future of Punjabi language qualifications. The Tory-led government and the exam boards AQA and OCR have published a list of subjects they wish to withdraw. Punjabi language A-levels and GCSEs are to be axed along with other languages such as Gujarati, Bengali, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Turkish and Portuguese. The Labour party, if elected, will guarantee to continue providing these qualifications.

Emma said, “Punjabi A-levels and GCSEs are very important in Wolverhampton. The Sikh community has made a great contribution to our city, and these qualifications are significant to the cultural life of the city. Wolvehampton’s young Punjabi speakers should be able to have their skills recognised through a respected qualification. A-levels like Punjabi help our communities keep their languages and traditions thriving.”

“For Britain to compete in the global economy it is vital that we continue to offer a range of language qualifications. Many of the qualifications being scrapped are for languages spoken in key emerging economies, such as Brazil, India and Turkey. Losing these GCSEs and A Levels would harm the job prospects of Britons wanting to work abroad and also harm businesses wishing to hire staff in the UK to deal with international operations. This Tory policy is bad for jobs and bad for business.”

“I am delighted Tristram Hunt has committed to protecting Punjabi and other language qualifications if a Labour government is elected on 7 May.”