Take action for a Romanian GCSE

Template Letter

Important: add your full name, home address and postcode at the end of the letter. MPs can only act for people who live in their constituency, so without these details your letter is unlikely to get a reply.

Dear [your MP’s name],

As one of your constituents, I am writing on behalf of the 1 million Romanians currently living in the UK to request the introduction of a Romanian GCSE.

We urgently need your help. Please write to the Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, to ask her to support our campaign.

Romanian is the second most spoken foreign language in the UK. One of the Department for Education’s key criteria for the introduction of a language GCSE is the prevalence of its use in Britain, and Romanian unequivocally meets this benchmark.

At the moment, the system is profoundly unfair: there are 20 foreign language GCSEs, from Urdu to Japanese and from Portuguese to Polish. On every metric, Romanian is the ignored outlier.

As with many heritage language communities, we are not asking for Romanian to be taught routinely in schools. We are requesting that the language is valued and recognised in the GCSE exam system, so that our British-Romanian children are encouraged to hold onto their superpower: a Latin language spoken in one of the biggest emerging economies in Europe, and also the first language of the Republic of Moldova (the Moldovan community in Britain, currently 100,000 strong, can only take a Russian GCSE).

Romanian is a close cousin of Spanish, French and Italian, and the ideal springboard for good performances in all other Romance languages.

Our campaign has already built strong parliamentary momentum. On 27 April this year, we held an impactful meeting in Portcullis House, Westminster, led by Gareth Thomas MP and supported by the Embassies of Romania and the Republic of Moldova and numerous MPs.

We need your help to persuade the exam boards that Romanian children deserve the opportunity to gain this qualification.

There is a clear precedent for political support for a new foreign language GCSE. The Government is currently working with exam boards to explore the development of a Ukrainian GCSE, following representations from MPs.

We are asking you to write to the Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, and urge her to give Romanian the same support and ask the exam boards to develop a Romanian GCSE.

To recognise the vital importance of our enormous diaspora across the North of England and the Midlands, we are holding our second major campaign event in Leeds on Friday 6 November.

The event will put the spotlight on the people who are currently being overlooked by the exam boards: the Romanian children in Britain. There will be performances and speeches delivered by children from across the North of England, making a clear case for why this GCSE is so vital.

If you or a member of your team could attend our Leeds event on 6 November, it would mean a great deal to me and to members of the Romanian community in our constituency. To confirm your attendance and receive additional details about this event, email caleb@romaniangcse.co.uk.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

[Your full name]
[Your home address]
[Your postcode]

Before you send it: replace the yellow fields with your MP’s name and your full name, home address and postcode.