Letter: Language plea

Axeing foreign assistants (your report, 12 February) drives another nail into the coffin currently being prepared for modern languages in Scottish schools by the introduction of mixed-level classes in secondaries and ineffectual provision in primaries.

I suggest that it is time to cut modern languages from the school curriculum and promote language schools on the successful Spanish model.

Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas (official schools of language) run by the ministry of education there are to be found in all major centres in Spain and offer intensive and part-time courses in a variety of languages, not just English.

David R Hill

Relugas Road

Edinburgh