The Board of Deputies has welcomed a commitment to safeguard the teaching of biblical and modern Hebrew in schools.

There had been fears that exam boards would stop offering GCSEs and A-levels in a number of languages where take-up was small.

But Hebrew will be now protected, along with Arabic, Japanese and Turkish among others.

Board of Deputies vice-president Sheila Gewolb was pleased that modern and biblical Hebrew “are to be safeguarded at both GCSE and A-Level. The Board has long campaigned to protect modern and biblical Hebrew, which are languages of our faith and culture, and of the modern state of Israel.”

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that “one of Britain’s strengths is its rich, multicultural nature and ensuring young people have the opportunity to study a wide range of languages is integral to that”.

She thanked “those exam boards who have worked with us to protect these languages so we will continue to have high quality qualifications available”.