A shadow minister pledged to save a foreign language from being scrapped from the curriculum when he visited a Harrow temple.

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt toured Shree Swaminarayan Temple Dharma Bhakti Manor, in Wood Lane, Stanmore, this morning with Labour candidate for Harrow East Uma Kumaran.

Trustees and members of the congregation voiced their concerns about the government’s decision to remove the Gujarati language from the GCSE syllabus.

The temple has been teaching the language since 2006 and the qualification has been offered for many years by the OCR examination board.

But the GCSE, along with other foreign languages, will not be redeveloped for teaching in 2017 due to low uptake.

Uma Kumaran said: “Language qualifications are an important way of helping Harrow’s multiethnic community preserve their culture and teach the next generation valuable language skills.

“Not only does it help young people communicate with their grandparents back home, it’s a beneficial life skill for competing in a global job market.

“I’ve been approached by more than 100 Harrow residents concerned about the government allowing Gujarati, Panjabi and Bengali to be axed from the GCSE syllabus and I’m proud that Labour has pledged to save them.”

During the visit, 14-year-old Karina Varsani - a former GCSE student at the Temple - spoke about how she completed her GCSE last June and now volunteers at the Temple as a Gujarati support teacher, using her skills to educate other young children.

Tristram Hunt added: “Teaching Gujarati is not just for competence but also for economic reasons and as the trade with India grows, we have to make sure that we are teaching our young children the language of a growing market.”