Bengali and Mandarin should have same priority as French and German, says Ofsted

Students could learn Bengali and Mandarin in schools instead of French and German

It warns, however, that the teacher training system is holding youngsters back because most "community language" teachers are not qualified.

Schools no longer have to offer lessons in a major European language, but can opt to teach other world languages instead.

A Government review last year said it will be crucial to teach minority languages as China and India grow in economic influence.

Ofsted said it found when community language teachers were given the opportunity to gain qualified teacher status, their teaching improved.

But today's report warns that few students are taking up places on the "limited" postgraduate training courses in community languages.

The watchdog calls for action "to stem the decline in the number of entries for GCSE community languages and to promote them up to and beyond GCSE level".

The Training and Development Agency for Schools said teacher training providers are free to offer a wider range of languages.

It said the "barrier" is the extent to which other languages are taught to whole classes in schools and the availability of suitable training placements.