Number of pupils taking Modern Hebrew at five-year high

The number of pupils taking Modern Hebrew at GCSE and A-Level is at a five-year high, government figures reveal.

In Answers to Parliamentary Questions, Minister of State at the Department for Education Nick Gibb MP said 526 students took Modern Hebrew at GCSE in 2016, the highest figure for five years and a marked rise from 372 students in 2013.

The number is still much lower than those taking languages such as Bengali and Panjabi, but more than the number taking Modern Greek. Student numbers for other languages, such as Polish and Chinese, have almost doubled since 2012.

At A-Level, there were 46 entries for Modern Hebrew in 2016, equalling the five-year high, but this figure is only half as many as go on to take Modern Greek at A-Level.

It follows a report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, published last month, which showed that the number of Jewish schools in the UK had doubled since the 1990s. However, the rise in the number of strictly Orthodox Jews means that the number of Jewish students learning Yiddish far outweighs the number learning Hebrew.