CILT has a usefuls table of entries in French, German and Spanish, since 1996. (the full table can be downloaded here).
French entries have fallen from 347,960 in 1996, to 318,963 in 2005, to 154,221 in 2011. The fall in French entries since 1996 is therefore 56%. Such is the legacy of New Labour on French.
Spanish entries have risen from 42,553 in 1996, to 62,489 in 2005, to 66,021 in 2011. This is a fall from over 67,000 in Spanish in the previous two years, so the growth in Spanish has stalled.
German entries have fallen from 134,286 in 1996, to 105,259 in 2005, to 60,887 in 2011. The fall of nearly 10,000 entries between 2010 and 2011 is proportionately the largest of these three languages.
These are national statistics, and so include the private sector, which has close to 100% of pupils taking a language. The fall of almost 200,000 pupils a year taking French, and 60,000 a year taking German, since 2006, is catastrophic, and not seriously ofset by the gain in Spanish. Overall, entries in the major European languages have fallen from 524,799 to 277,597, a loss of 247,202, or 47%.
The falls in entries for geography and history make this a compelling argument for Ebac. These subjects are all better represented in the private sector. It should be a matter of pride for those of us in the public sector that we do not offer children fewer opportunities than they would have if their parents were better off. Science has begun to pull its socks up. So should languages.