SCHOOLS in the region that failed to teach a foreign language to a single pupil over the age of 14 last year have responded to criticism.

The Conservative party said Government guidelines to make GCSE language courses voluntary would damage Britain's international competitiveness.

But schools in the North-East said it was not true to say they had scrapped GCSE language courses.

Colin Algie, headteacher at Ormesby Comprehensive School in Middlesbrough - one of the schools singled out by the Tories - said that foreign languages were an important part of the curriculum.

He said: "As a teacher of modern languages myself, I hold these subjects close to my heart.

"I think they are extremely important and now we send our head of department into primary schools to teach years five and six at primary school level.

"The children then come here at the age of 11 to continue another three years of languages.

"They then make a decision whether to continue with the subjects as far as GCSE level.

"But following Government policy on this, from the age of 14, children now have the option to drop their languages.

"We, as a school, are taking great strides to encourage our pupils into learning another language, contrary to this Government policy."

The Tories revealed that 25 schools in England did not teach a single GCSE language course last year, including Ormesby School, Dyke House Comprehensive School, in Hartlepool, and the federation of Fyndoune Community College, in Sacriston, County Durham, and Durham Community Business College for Technology and Enterprise, in Ushaw Moor.

Bill Jordon CBE, headteacher at Dyke House School, said they participated in a similar primary school pilot project to Ormesby.

He said: "For this current year, we have 12 pupils taking foreign language exams in the summer and there will be ten sitting the following academic year."

Fiona Wilson, assistant headteacher (curriculum) at Fyndoune and Durham Community Business College, said: "Since the curriculum changes of 2004, we have explored new ways of providing an entitlement to modern foreign languages at key stage four.

"In the past two years, students have followed a GCSE French course and, from September 2006, it has been compulsory for students on one of our pathway programmes to study Spanish.

"The federation between Fyndoune and Durham Community Business College prides itself on the breadth of choice offered to all of our students."

The Government has repeatedly been accused of plunging language teaching in crisis through its 2004 decision to make it voluntary at GCSE level.

Nick Gibb, Conservative schools' spokesman, said: "We are now seeing an increasing number of schools not teaching a modern foreign language to any of their students.

"In the long-term, this will present problems for this country's international competitiveness."

The existence of schools failing to teach any language courses was first revealed last December, in an independent review carried out for the Government by Lord Dearing.

The peer said it illustrated the "striking" contrast in the way the 2004 guidelines had been adopted by different schools across England.

The Tories highlighted how the proportion of pupils taking a language at GCSE has dropped from 78 per cent in 2001 to 51 per cent last year.