Traditional subjects such as humanities and languages are enjoying a revival among teenagers, even before a government drive to boost academic courses was supposed to take effect.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, wants more pupils to sit GCSEs in core subjects favoured by universities and employers. He introduced the “English Baccalaureate”, by which the Government will rate schools by the number of its pupils who take a combination of GCSEs including English, mathematics, sciences, a language and history or geography.
However, this was announced in the autumn of 2010, months after this year’s GCSE pupils had chosen their courses. The